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IX. 

VIOLA   CANINA. 
Fast  Sketch  to  show  Grouping  of  Leaves. 


PROSERPINA. 


STUDIES    OF    WAYSIDE    FLOWEKS, 


WHILE  THE  AIR  WAS  YET  PURE 

AMONG  THE  ALPS,  AND  IN  THE  SCOTLAND  AND 
ENGLAND  WEIGH  MY  FATHER  KNEW. 


BY 

JOHN   RUSKIN,   LL.D., 

HONORARY     STCDENT     OF     CHRISTCHURCH,     AND     HONORARY     FELLOW     OF    CORPUS 
CHRISTI     COLLEGE,    OXFORD. 


VOL.  II. 


NEW  YORK: 

JOHN  WILEY  &  SONS, 
15  ASTOR  PLACE. 

1886. 


fa 

V.  2- 


PROSERPINA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

VIOLA. 

1.  ALTHOUGH  I  have  not  been  able  in  the  preceding 
volume  to  complete,  in  any  wise  as  I  desired,  the  account 
of  the  several  parts  and  actions  of  plants  in  general,  I 
will  not  delay  any  longer  our  entrance  on  the  examina- 
tion of  particular  kinds,  though  here  and  there  I  must 
interrupt   such   special   study   by  recurring  to  general 
principles,  or  points  of  wider  interest.     But  the  scope  of 
such  larger  inquiry  will  be  best  seen,  and  the  use  of  it 
best  felt,  by  entering  now  on  specific  study. 

I  begin  with  the  Violet,  because  the  arrangement  of 
the  group  to  which  it  belongs — Cytherides — is  more  ar- 
bitrary than  that  of  the  rest,  and  calls  for  some  immedi- 
ate explanation. 

2.  I  fear  that  my  readers   may  expect  me  to  write 
something  very  pretty  for  them  about  violets :  but  my 
time  for  writing  prettily  is  long  past ;  and  it  requires 
some  watching  over  myself,  I  find,  to  keep  me  even 


PROSERPINA. 


from  writing  querulously.  For  while,  the  older  I  grow, 
very  thankfully  I  recognize  more  and  more  the  number 
of  pleasures  granted  to  human  eyes  in  this  fair  world,  I 
recognize  also  an  increasing  sensitiveness  in  my  temper 
to  anything  that  interferes  with  them ;  and  a  grievous 
readiness  to  find  fault — always  of  course  submissively, 
but  very  articulately — with  whatever  Nature  seems  to 
me  not  to  have  managed  to  the  best  of  her  power ; — as, 
for  extreme  instance,  her  late  arrangements  of  frost  this 
spring,  destroying  all  the  beauty  of  the  wood  sorrels ; 
nor  am  I  less  inclined,  looking  to  her  as  the  greatest  of 
sculptors  and  painters,  to  ask,  every  time  I  see  a  narcis- 
sus, why  it  should  be  wrapped  up  in  brown  paper ;  and 
every  time  I  see  a  violet,  what  it  wants  with  a  spur  ? 

3.  What  any  flower  wants  with  a  spur,  is  indeed  the 
simplest  and  hitherto  to  me  unanswerablest  form  of  the 
question;  nevertheless,  when  blossoms  grow  in  spires, 
and  are  crowded  together,  and  have  to  grow  partly 
downwards,  in  order  to  win  their  share  of  light  and 
breeze,  one  can  see  some  reason  for  the  effort  of  the 
petals  to  expand  upwards  and  backwards  also.  But  that 
a  violet,  who  has  her  little  stalk  to  herself,  and  might 
grow  straight  up,  if  she  pleased,  should  be  pleased  to  do 
nothing  of  the  sort,  but  quite  gratuitously  bend  her 
stalk  down  at  the  top,  and  fasten  herself  to  it  by  her 
waist,  as  it  were, — this  is  so  much  more  like  a  girl  of  the 
period's  fancy  than  a  violet's,  that  I  never  gather  one 
separately  but  with  renewed  astonishment  at  it. 


I.    VIOLA.  3 

4.  One  reason  indeed  there  is,  which  I  never  thought 
of  until  this  moment !  a  piece  of  stupidity  which  I  can 
only  pardon  myself  in,  because,  as  it  has  chanced,  I  have 
studied  violets  most  in  gardens,  not  in  their  wild  haunts, 
—partly  thinking  their  Athenian  honour  was  as  a  garden 
flower;  and  partly  being  always  Ted  away  from  them, 
among  the  hills,  by  flowers  which  I  could  see  nowhere 
else.     With  all  excuse  I  can  furbish  up,  however,  it  is 
shameful  that  the  truth  of  the  matter  never  struck  me 
before,  or  at  least  this  bit  of  the  truth — as  follows. 

5.  The  Greeks,  and  Milton,  alike  speak  of  violets  as 
growing  in  meadows  tor  dales).     But  the  Greeks  did  so 
because   they   could    not   fancy   any   delight   except   in 
meadows;  and  Milton,  because  he  wanted   a  rhyme  to 
nightingale  —  and,   after   all,    was   London  bred.      But 
Viola's  beloved  knew  where  violets  grew  in  Illyria, — and 
grow  everywhere  else  also,  when  they  can, — on  a  bank, 
facing  the  south. 

Just  as  distinctly  as  the  daisy  and  buttercup  are 
'•no  flowers,  the  violet  is  a  bank  flower,  and  would 
fain  grow  always  on  a  steep  slope,  towards  the  sun. 
And  it  is  so  poised  on  its  stem  that  it  shows,  when  grow- 
ing on  a  slope,  the  full  space  and  opening  of  its  flower, 
—not  at  all,  in  any  strain  of  modesty,  hiding  ifa-tf* 
though  it  may  easily  be,  by  grass  or  mossy  stone,  'half 
hidden,' — but,  to  the  full,  showing  itself,  and  intending 
to  be  lovely  and  luminous,  as  fragrant,  to  the  uttermost 
of  its  soft  power. 


PROSERPINA. 

Nor  merely  in  its  oblique  setting  on  the  stalk,  but  in 
the  reversion  of  its  two  upper  petals,  the  flower  shows 
this  purpose  of  being  fully  seen.  (For  a  flower  that 
does  hide  itself,  take  a  lily  of  the  valley,  or  the  bell  of 
a  grape  hyacinth,  or  a  cyclamen.)  But  respecting  this 
matter  of  petal-reversion,  we  must  now  farther  state  two 
or  three  general  principles. 

6.  A  perfect  or  pure  flower,  as  a  rose,  oxalis,  or  cam- 
panula, is  always  composed  of  an  unbroken  whorl,  or 
corolla,  in  the  form  of  a  disk,  cup,  bell,  or,  if  it  draw 
together  again  at  the  lips,  a  narrow-necked  vase.  This 
cup,  bell,  or  vase,  is  divided  into  similar  petals,  (or  seg- 
ments, which  are  petals  carefully  joined,)  varying  in  num- 
ber from  three  to  eight,  and  enclosed  by  a  calyx  whose 
sepals  are  symmetrical  also. 

An  imperfect,  or,  as  I  am  inclined  rather  to  call  it,  an 
6  injured'  flower,  is  one  in  which  some  of  the  petals  have 
inferior  office  and  position,  and  are  either  degraded,  for 
the  benefit  of  others,  or  expanded  and  honoured  at  the 
cost  of  others. 

Of  this  process,  the  first  and  simplest  condition  is  the 
reversal  of  the  upper  petals  and  elongation  of  the  lower 
ones,  in  blossoms  set  on  the  side  of  a  clustered  stalk. 
"When  the  change  is  simply  and  directly  dependent  on 
their  position  in  the  cluster,  as  in  Aurora  Regina,*  modi- 
fying every  bell  just  in  proportion  as  it  declines  from 
the  perfected  central  one,  some  of  the  loveliest  groups  of 
*Vol.  i.,  p.212,  note. 


I.    VIOLA.  5 

form  are  produced  which  can  be  seen  in  any  inferior 
nrirunisin  :  but  when  the  irregularity  becomes  fixed,  and 
the  newer  is  always  to  the  same  extent  distorted,  what- 
ever its  position  in  the  cluster,  the  plant  is  to  be  rightly 
thought  of  as  reduced  to  a  lower  rank  in  creation. 

7.  It  is  to  be  observed,  also,  that  these  inferior  forms 
of  flower  have  always  the  appearance  of  being  produced 
by  .-nine  kind  of  mischief — blight,  bite,  or  ill-breeding; 
they  never  suggest  the  idea  of  improving  themselves,  now, 
into  anything  better ;  one  is  only  afraid  of  their  tearing 
or  puffing  themselves  into  something  worse.     Xay,  even 
the  quite  natural  and  simple  conditions  of  inferior  vege- 
table do  not  in  the  least  suggest,  to  the  uribitten  or  un- 
blighted  human  intellect,  the  notion  of  development  into 
anything  other  than  their  like :  one  does  not  expect  a 
mushroom   to   translate   itself   into   a  pineapple,    nor  a 
betony  to  moralize  itself  into  a  lily,  nor  a  snapdragon  to 
soften  himself  into  a  lilac. 

8.  It  is  very  possible,  indeed,  that  the  recent  phrenzy 
fur  the  investigation  of  digestive  and  reproductive  oper- 
ations in  plants  may  by  tin's  time  have  furnished  the 
microscopic  malice  of  botanists  with  providentially  dis- 
gusting reasons,  or   demoniacally  nasty  necessities,  for 
every  possible  spur,  spike,  jag,  sting,  rent,  blotch,  flaw, 
freckle,  filth,  or  venom,  which  can  be  detected  in  the 
construction,  or  distilled  from  the  dissolution,  of  vegeta- 
ble  organism.     But  with  these   obscene   processes   and 
prurient   apparitions   the   gentle  and   happy  scholar  of 


6  PROSERPINA. 

flowers  has  nothing  whatever  to  do.  I  am  amazed  and 
saddened,  more  than  I  can  care  to  say,  by  finding  how 
much  that  is  abominable  may  be  discovered  by  an  ill- 
taught  curiosity,  in  the  purest  things  that  earth  is  allowed 
to  produce  for  us; — perhaps  if  we  were  less  reprobate  in 
our  own  ways,  the  grass  which  is  our  type  might  con- 
duct itself  better,  even  though  it  has  no  hope  but  of 
being  cast  into  the  oven ;  in  the  meantime,  healthy 
human  eyes  and  thoughts  are  to  be  set  on  the  lovely 
laws  of  its  growth  and  habitation,  and  not  on  the  mean 
mysteries  of  its  birth. 

9.  I  relieve,  therefore,  our  presently  inquiring  souls 
from  any  farther  care  as  to  the  reason  for  a  violet's  spur, 
— or  for  the  extremely  ugly  arrangements  of  its  stamens 
and  style,  invisible  unless  by  vexatious  and  vicious  peep- 
ing. You  are  to  think  of  a  violet  only  in  its  green 
leaves,  and  purple  or  golden  petals ; — you  are  to  know 
the  varieties  of  form  in  both,  proper  to  common  species ; 
and  in  what  kind  of  places  they  all  most  fondly  live,  and 
most  deeply  glow. 

"  And  the  recreation  of  the  minde  which  is  taken 
heereby  cannot  be  but  verie  good  and  honest,  for  they 
admonish  and  stir  up  a  man  to  that  which  is  comely  and 
honest.  For  flowers,  through  their  beautie,  varietie  of 
colour,  and  exquisite  forme,  do  bring  to  a  liberall  and 
gentle  manly  minde  the  remembrance  of  honestie,  come- 
liness, and  all  kinds  of  vertues.  For  it  would  be  an  un- 
seemely  and  filthie  thing,  as  a  certain  wise  man  saith,  for 


I.    VIOLA.  7 

him  that  cloth  looke  upon  and  handle  faire  and  beautiful 
thinirs.  and  who  frequenteth  and  is  conversant  in  faire 
and  beautiful  places,  to  have  his  mind  not  faire,  but 
filthie  and  deformed/' 

10.  Thus  Gerarde,  in   the  close  of  his   introductory 
notice  of  the  violet, — speaking  of  things,  (honesty,  come- 
liness, and  the  like,)  scarcely  now  recognized  as  desirable 
in   the  realm   of  England;  but   having   previously  ob- 
served that  violets  are  useful  for  the  making  of  garlands 
for  the  head,  and  posies  to  smell  to ; — in  which  last  func- 
tion I  observe  they  are  still  pleasing  to  the  British  pub- 
lic :  and  I  found  the  children  here,  only  the  other  day, 
munching  a  confection  of  candied  violet  leaves.     "What 
pleasure  the  flower  can  still  give  us,  uncandied,  and  un- 
bound, but  in  its  own  place  and  life,  I  will  try  to  trace 
through  some  of  its  constant  laws. 

11.  And  first,  let  us  be  clear  that  the  native  colour  of 
the  violet  -is  violet ;  and  that  the  white  and  yellow  kinds, 
though  pretty  in  their  place  and  way,  are   not  to  be 
thought  of  in  generally  meditating  the  flower's  quality 
or  power.     A  white  violet  is  to  black  ones  what  a  black 
man  is  to  white  ones;  and  the  yellow  varieties  are,  I 
believe,  properly   pansies,  and  belong  also  to  wild  dis- 
tricts for  the  most   part;  but  the  true  violet,  which    I 
have  just  now  called  4  black,'  with  Gerarde,  "  the  blacke 
or  purple  violet,  hath  a  great  prerogative  above  others," 
and  all  the  nobler  species  pf  the  pansy  itself  are  of  full 
purple,  inclining,  however,  in  the  ordinary  wild  violet  to 


8  PROSERPINA. 

blue.  In  the  'Laws  of  Fesole,'  chap,  vii.,  §§  20,  21,  I 
have  made  this  dark  pansy  the  representative  of  purple 
pure ;  the  viola  odorata,  of  the  link  between  that  full 
purple  and  blue ;  and  the  heath-blossom  of  the  link  be- 
tween that  full  purple  and  red.  The  reader  will  do  well, 
as  much  as  may  be  possible  to  him,  to  associate  his  study 
of  botany,  as  indeed  all  other  studies  of  visible  things, 
with  that  of  painting :  but  he  must  remember  that  he 
cannot  know  what  violet  colour  really  is,  unless  he  watch 
the  flower  in  its  early  growth.  It  becomes  dim  in  age, 
and  dark  when  it  is  gathered — at  least,  when  it  is  tied  in 
bunches ; — but  I  am  under  the  impression  that  the  colour 
actually  deadens  also, — at  all  events,  no  other  single 
flower  of  the  same  quiet  colour  lights  up  the  ground 
near  it  as  a  violet  will.  The  bright  hounds-tongue  looks 
merely  like  a  spot  of  bright  paint ;  but  a  young  violet 
glows  like  painted  glass. 

12.  "Which,  when  you  have  once  well  noticed,  the  two 
lines  of  Milton  and  Shakspeare  which  seem  opposed, 
will  both  become  clear  to  you.  The  said  lines  are 
dragged  from  hand  to  hand  along  their  pages  of  pilfered 
quotations  by  the  hack  botanists, — who  probably  never 
saw  them,  nor  anything  else,  in  Shakspeare  or  Milton  in 
their  lives, — till  even  in  reading  them  where  they  rightly 
come,  you  can  scarcely  recover  their  fresh  meaning  :  but 
none  of  the  botanists  ever  think  of  asking  why  Perdita 
calls  the  violet  '  dim,'  and  Milton  '  glowing.' 

Perdita,  indeed,  calls  it  dim,  at  that  moment,  in  think- 


7Y> 

C4, 


I.    VIOLA. 

ing  of  her  own  love,  and  the  hidden  passion  of  it,  un- 
speakable ;  nor  is  Milton  without  some  purpose  of  using 
it  as  an  emblem  of  love,  mourning, — but,  in  both  cases, 
the  subdued  and  quiet  hue  of  the  flower  as  an  actual  tint 
of  colour,  and  the  strange  force  and  life  of  it  as  a  part 
of  light,  are  felt  to  their  uttermost. 

And  observe,  also,  that  both  of  the  poets  contrast  the 
violet,  in  its  softness,  with  the  intense  marking  of  the 
pansy.  Milton  makes  the  opposition  directly — 

"  the  pansy,  freaked  with  jet, 
The  glowing  violet." 

Shakspeare  shows  yet  stronger  sense  of  the  difference,  in 
the  ''purple  with  Love's  wound"  of  the  pansy,  while 
the  violet  is  sweet  with  Love's  hidden  life,  and  sweeter 
than  the  lids  of  Juno's  eyes. 

Whereupon,  we  may  perhaps  consider  with  ourselves 
a  little,  what  the  difference  is  between  a  violet  and  a 
pansy  \ 

13.  Is,  I  say.  and  was,  and  is  to  come, — in  spite  of 
florists,  who  try  to  make  pansies  round,  instead  of  pen- 
tagonal ;  and  of  the  wise  classifying  people,  who  say  that 
violets  and  pansies  are  the  same  thing — and  that  neither 
of  them  are  of  much  interest !  As,  for  instance,  Dr. 
Linclley  in  his  '  Ladies'  Botany.' 

••  Violets — sweet  Violets,  and  Pansies,  or  Heartsease, 
represent  a  small  family,  with  the  structure  of  which 
you  should  be  familiar ;  more,  however,  for  the  sake  of 


10  PROSERPINA. 

its  singularity  than  for  its  extent  or  importance,  for  the 
family  is  a  very  small  one,  and  there  are  but  few  species 
belonging  to  it  in  which  much  interest  is  taken.  As 
the  parts  of  the  Heartsease  are  larger  than  those  of  the 
Yiolet,  let  us  select  the  former  in  preference  for  the 
subject  of  our  study."  Whereupon  we  plunge  instantly 
into  the  usual  account  of  things  with  horns  and  tails. 
"  The  stamens  are  five  in  number — two  of  them,  which 
are  in  front  of  the  others,  are  hidden  within  the  horn  of 
the  front  petal,"  etc.,  etc.,  etc.  (Note  in  passing,  by  the 
'  horn  of  the  front '  petal  he  means  the  i  spur  of  the  bot- 
tom' one,  which  indeed  does  stand  in  front  of  the  rest, 
—but  if  therefore  it  is  to  be  called  the  front  petal— 
which  is  the  back  one  ?)  You  may  find  in  the  next  par- 
agraph description  of  a  "  singular  conformation,"  and 
the  interesting  conclusion  that  "  no  one  has  yet  discov- 
ered for  what  purpose  this  singular  conformation  was 
provided."  But  you  will  not,  in  the  entire  article,  find 
/lie  least  attempt  to  tell  you  the  difference  between  a 
violet  and  a  pansy ! — except  in  one  statement — and  that 
false !  a  The  sweet  violet  will  have  no  rival  among 
flowers,  if  we  merely  seek  for  delicate  fragrance ;  but 
her  sister,  the  heartsease,  who  is  destitute  of  all  sweet- 
ness, far  surpasses  her  in  rich  dresses  and  gaudy  \ ! ! 
colours."  The  heartsease  is  not  without  sweetness. 
There  are  sweet  pansies  scented,  and  dog  pansies  un- 
scented — as  there  are  sweet  violets  scented,  and  clog 
violets  unscented..  What  is  the  real  difference  ? 


I.    VIOLA.  11 

14.  I  turn  to  another  scientific  gentleman — more  sci- 
entific in  form  indeed,  Mr.  Grindon, — and  find,  for  an- 
other interesting  phenomenon  in  the  violet,  that  it  some- 
times produces  flowers  without  any  petals!  and  in  the 
pansy,  that  "  the  flowers  turn  towards  the  sun,  and  when 
many  are  open  at  once,  present  a  droll  appearance,  look- 
ing like  a  number  of  faces  all  on  the  '  qui  vive.' 5:     But 
nothing  of  the  difference  between  them,  except  some- 
thing about  '  stipules,'  of  which  "it  is  important  to  ob- 
serve that  the  leaves  should  be  taken  from  the  middle  of 
the  stem — those  above  and  below  being  variable." 

I  observe,  however,  that  Mr.  Grindon  has  arranged 
his  violets  under  the  letter  A,  and  his  pansies  under  the 
letter  B,  and  that  something  may  be  really  made  out  of 
him,  with  an  hour  or  two's  work.  I  am  content,  how- 
ever, at  present,  with  his  simplifying  assurance  that  of 
violet  and  pansy  together,  "  six  species  grow  wild  in 
Britain — or,  as  some  believe,  only  four — while  the  ana- 
lysts run  the  number  up  to  fifteen." 

15.  Xext  I  try  London's  Cyclopaedia,  which,  through 
all  its  TOO  pages,  is  equally  silent  on  the  business  ;  and 
next,  Mr.  Baxter's  'British   Flowering  Plants,'  in   the 
index  of  which  I  find  neither  Pansy  nor  Heartsease,  and 
only  the  '  Calathian '  Yiolet,  (where  on  earth  is  Cala- 
thia  ?)  which  proves,  on  turning  it  up,  to  be  a  Gentian. 

10.  At  last,  I  take  my  Figuier,  (but  what  should  I  do 
if  I.  only  knew  English  ?)  and  find  this  much  of  clue  to 
the  matter : — 


12  PKOSERPISTA. 

"  Qu'est  ce  que  c'est  que  la  Pensee  ?  Cette  jolie  plante 
appartient  aussi  ou  genre  Yiola,  mais  a  un  section  de  ce 
genre.  En  eifet,  dans  les  Pensees,  les  petales  superieurs 
et  lateraux  sont  diriges  en  haut,  Pinferieur  seul  est 
dirige  en  bas  :  et  de  plus,  le  stigmate  est  urceole,  glo- 
buleux." 

And  farther,  this  general  description  of  the  whole 
violet  tribe,  which  I  translate,  that  we  may  have  its  full 
value  : — 

"  The  violet  is  a  plant  without  a  stem  (tige), — (see 
vol.  i.,  p.  154,) — whose  height  does  not  surpass  one  or 
two  decimetres.  Its  leaves,  radical,  or  carried  on  stolons, 
(vol.  i.,  p.  158,)  are  sharp,  or  oval,  crenulate,  or  heart- 
shape.  Its  stipules  are  oval-acuminate,  or  lanceolate. 
Its  flowers,  of  sweet  scent,  of  a  dark  violet  or  a  reddish 
blue,  are  carried  each  on  a  slender  peduncle,  which  bends 
down  at  .the  summit.  Such  is,  for  the  botanist,  the 
Violet,  of  which  the  poets  would  give  assuredly  another 
description." 

17.  Perhaps ;  or  even  the  painters  !  or  even  an  ordi- 
nary unbotanical  human  creature  !  I  must  set  about  my 
business,  at  any  rate,  in  my  own  way,  now,  as  I  best  can, 
looking  first  at  things  themselves,  and  then  putting  this 
and  that  together,  out  of  these  botanical  persons,  which 
they  can't  put  together  out  of  themselves.  And  first,  I 
go  down  into  my  kitchen  garden,  where  the  path  to  the 
lake  has  a  border  of  pansies  on  both  sides  all  the  way 
down,  with  clusters  of  narcissus  behind  them.  And 


I.    VIOLA.  13 

pulling  up  a  handful  of  pansies  by  the  roots,  I  find  them 
"without  stems,"  indeed,  if  a  stem  means  a  wooden 
thing ;  but  I  should  say,  for  a  low-growing  flower,  quiet 
lankily  and  disagreeably  stalky !  And,  thinking  over 
what  I  remember  about  wild  pansies,  I  find  an  impres- 
sion on  my  mind  of  their  being  rather  more  stalky,  al- 
ways, than  is  quite  graceful ;  and,  for  all  their  fine  flow- 
ers, having  rather  a  weedy  and  littery  look,  and  getting 
into  places  where  they  have  no  business.  See,  again, 
vol.  i.,  chap,  vi.,  §  5. 

18.  And  now,  going  up  into  my  flower  and  fruit  gar- 
den, I  find   (June   2nd,  1881,  half-past   six,  morning,) 
among  the  wild  saxifrages,  which  are  allowed  to  grow 
wherever  they  like,  and  the  rock  strawberries,  and  Fran- 
cescas,  which  are  coaxed  to  grow  wherever  there  is  a  bit 
of  rough  ground  for  them,  a  bunch  or  two  of  pale  pan- 
sies, or  violets,  I  don't  know  well  which,  by  the  flower ; 
but  the  entire  company  of  them  has  a  ragged,  jagged, 
un purpose-like  look  ;  extremely, — I  should  say, — demor- 
alizing to  all  the  little  plants  in  their  neighbourhood  :  and 
on  gathering  a  flower,  I  find  it  is  a  nasty  big  thing,  all 
of  a  feeble   blue,  and  with  two   things   like   horns,  or 
thorns,  sticking   out  where   its   ears   would   be,   if  the 
pansy's  frequently  monkey  face  were  underneath  them. 
Which  I  find  to  be  two  of  the  leaves  of  its  calyx  'out  of 
place,'  and,  at  all  events,  for  their  part,  therefore,  weedy, 
and  insolent. 

19.  I  perceive,  farther,  that  this  disorderly  flower  is 


14  PROSERPINA. 

lifted  on  a  lanky,  awkward,  springless,  and  yet  stiff 
flower-stalk  ;  which  is  not  round,  as  a  flower-stalk  ought 
to  be,  (vol.  i.,  p.  155,)  but  obstinately  square,  and  fluted, 
with  projecting  edges,  like  a  pillar  run  thin  out  of  an 
iron-foundry  for  a  cheap  railway  station.  I  perceive 
also  that  it  has  set  on  it,  just  before  turning  down  to 
carry  the  flower,  two  little  jaggy  and  indefinable  leaves, 
—  their  colour  a  little  more  violet  than  the  blossom. 

These,  and  such  undeveloping  leaves,  wherever  they 
occur,  are  called  '  bracts  '  by  botanists,  a  good  word,  from 
the  Latin  '  bractea,'  meaning  a  piece  of  metal  plate,  so 
thin  as  to  crackle.  They  seem  always  a  little  stiff,  like 
bad  parchment,  —  born  to  come  to  nothing  —  a  sort  of  in- 
finitesimal fairy  -lawyer's  deed.  They  ought  to  have  been 
in  my  index  at  p.  255,  under  the  head  of  leaves,  and  are 
frequent  in  flower  structure,  —  never,  as  far  as  one  can 
see,  of  the  smallest  use.  They  are  constant,  however,  in 
the  flower-stalk  of  the  whole  violet  tribe. 

20.  I  perceive,  farther,  that  this  lanky  flower-stalk, 
bending  a  little  in  a  crabbed,  broken  way,  like  an  obsti- 
nate person  tired,  pushes  itself  up  out  of  a  still  more 
stubborn,  nondescript,  hollow  angular,  dogseared  gas- 
pipe  of  a  stalk,  with  a  section  something  like  this, 


but  no  bigger  than   \f   with  a  quantity  cf 


ill-made  and  ill-hemmed  leaves  on  it,  of  no  describable 
leaf  -cloth  or  texture,  —  not  cressic,  (though  the  thing  does 


I.    VIOLA.  15 

altogether  look  a  good  deal  like  a  quite  uneatable  old 
watercress)  ;  not  salviau,  for  there's  no  look  of  warmth 
or  comfort  in  them ;  not  cauline,  for  there's  no  juice  in 
them ;  not  dryad,  for  there's  no  strength  in  them,  nor 
apparent  use  :  they  seem  only  there,  as  far  as  I  can  make 
out,  to  spoil  the  flower,  and  take  the  good  out  of  my 
garden  bed.  Nobody  in  the  world  could  draw  them, 
they  are  so  mixed  up  together,  and  crumpled  and  hacked 
about,  as  if  some  ill-natured  child  had  snipped  them  with 
blunt  scissors,  and  an  ill-natured  cow  chewed  them  a 
little  afterwards  and  left  them,  proved  for  too  tough  or 
too  bitter. 

21.  Having  now  sufficiently  observed,  it  seems  to  me, 
this  incongruous  plant,  I  proceed  to  ask  myself,  over  it, 
M.  Figuier's  question,  4  Qu'est-ce  c'est  qu'un  Pensee?' 
Is  this  a  violet — or  a  pansy — or  a  bad  imitation  of  both  ? 

Whereupon  I  try  if  it  has  any  scent :  and  to  my  much 
surprise,  find  it  has  a  full  and  soft  one — which  I  suppose 
is  what  my  gardener  keeps  it  for!  According  to  Dr. 
Lindley,  then,  it  must  be  a  violet!  But  according  to  M. 
Figuier, — let  me  see,  do  its  middle  petals  bend  up,  or 
down? 

I  think  I'll  go  and  ask  the  gardener  what  he  calls  it. 

22.  My  gardener,  on  appeal  to  him,  tells  me  it  is  the 
6  Yiola  Cornuta.'  but  that  he  does  not  know  himself  if  it 
is  violet  or  pansy.     I  take  my  London  again,  and  find 
there  were  fifty-three  species  of  violets,  known  in  his 
days,  of  which,  as  it  chances,  Cornuta  is  exactly  the  last. 


16  PROSERPINA. 

i  Horned  violet ' :  I  said  the  green  things  were  like 
horns! — but  what  is  one  to  say  of,  or  to  do  to,  scientific 
people,  who  first  call  the  spur  of  the  violet's  petal,  horn, 
and  then  its  calyx  points,  horns,  and  never  define  a 
c  horn '  all  the  while  ! 

Yiola  Cornuta,  however,  let  it  be ;  for  the  name  does 
mean  something,  and  is  not  false  Latin.  But  whether 
violet  or  pansy,  I  must  look  farther  to  find  out. 

23.  I  take  the  Flora  Danica,  in  which  I  at  least  am 
sure  of  finding  whatever  is  done  at  all,  done  as  well  as 
honesty  and  care  can ;  and  look  what  species  of  violets  it 
gives. 

Nine,  in  the  first  ten  volumes  of  it;  four  in  their 
modern  sequel  (that  I  know  of, — I  have  had  no  time  to 
examine  the  last  issues).  Namely,  in  alphabetical  order, 
with  their  present  Latin,  or  tentative  Latin,  names;  and 
in  plain  English,  the  senses  intended  by  the  hapless  scien- 
tific people,  in  such  their  tentative  Latin  : — 

(1)  Viola  Arvensis.         Field  (Violet)  ...     No.  1748 

(2)  "     Biflora.  Two-flowered   ...  46 

(3)  "     Canina.  Dog 1453 

(3s)     "     Canina.  Yar.  Multicaulis  (many- 

stemmed),  a  very  singular  sort  of 

violet — if  it  were  so !  Its  real  dif- 
ference from  our  dog-violet  is  in 
being  pale  blue,  and  having  a 
golden  centre 2646 


I.   VIOLA.  17 

(4)  Viola  Hirta.  Hairy 618 

(5)  "  Mirabilis.  Marvellous      ....  1045 

(6)  "  Montana.  Mountain 1329 

(7)  "  Odorata.  Odorous 309 

(8)  "  Palustris.  Marshy 83 

(9)  "  Tricolor.  Three-coloured    ...  623 
(9s)  "  Tricolor.  Yar.   Arenaria,    Sandy 

Three-coloured 2647 

(10)  "     Elatior.     Taller 68 

(11)  "     Epipsila.     (Heaven  knows  what :  it  is 

Greek,  not  Latin,  and  looks  as  if 
it  meant  something  between  a 
bishop  and  a  short  letter  e)  .  .  2405 

I  next  run  down  this  list,  noting  what  names  we  can 
keep,  and  what  we  can't ;  and  what  aren't  worth  keep- 
ing, if  we  could :  passing  over  the  varieties,  however, 
for  the  present,  wholly. 

(1)  Arvensis.     Field-violet.     Good. 

(2)  Binora.     A  good  epithet,  but  in  false  Latin.     It  is 

to  be  our  Yiola  aurea,  golden  pansy. 

(3)  Canina.     Dog.     Not  pretty,   but   intelligible,   and 

by  common  use  now  classical.     Must  stay. 

(4)  Hirta.     Late  Latin  slang  for  hirsuta,  and   always 

used  of  nasty  places  or  nasty  people  ;  it  shall  not 
stay.  The  species  shall  be  our  Yiola  Seclusa, — 
Monk's  violet — meaning  the  kind  of  monk  who 

leads  a  rough  life  like  Elijah's,  or  the  Baptist's, 
2 


18  PROSERPINA. 

or  Esau's — in  another  kind.  This  violet  is  one  of 
the  loveliest  that  grows. 

(5)  Mirabilis.    Stays  so  ;  marvellous  enough,  truly  :  not 

more  so  than  all  violets ;  but  I  am  very  glad  to 
hear  of  scientific  people  capable  of  admiring  any- 
-   thing. 

(6)  Montana.     Stays  so. 

(7)  Odorata.     Not   distinctive; — nearly  classical,   how- 

ever. It  is  to  be  our  Viola  Kegina,  else  I  should 
not  have  altered  it. 

(8)  Palustris.     Stays  so. 

(9)  Tricolor.     True,  but  intolerable.     The  flower  is  the 

queen  of  the  true  pansies  :  to  be  our  Viola  Psyche. 

(10)  Elatior.     Only  a  variety  of    our   already  accepted 

Cornuta, 

(11)  The  last  is,  I  believe,  also  only  a  variety  of  Palus- 

tris. Its  leaves,  I  am  informed  in  the  text,  are 
either  "  pubescent-reticulate- venose-subreniform," 
or  "  lato-cordate-repando-crenate  ;"  and  its  stipules 
are  "  ovate-acuminate-iim brio-denticulate."  I  do 
not  wish  to  pursue  the  inquiry  farther. 

24.  These  ten  species  will  include,  noting  here  and 
there  a  local  variety,  all  the  forms  which  are  familiar  to 
us  in  Northern  Europe,  except  only  two  ; — these,  as  it 
singularly  chances,  being  the  Viola  Alpium,  noblest  of 
all  the  wild  pansies  in  the  world,  so  far  as  I  have  seen  or 
heard  of  them, — of  which,  consequently,  I  find  no  pic- 


I.    VIOLA.  19 

ture,  nor  notice,  in  any  botanical  work  whatsoever ;  and 
the  other,  the  rock-violet  of  our  own  Yorkshire  hills. 

"We  have  therefore,  ourselves,  finally  then,  twelve  fol- 
lowing species  to  study.  I  give  them  now  all  in  their 
accepted  names  and  proper  order, — the  reasons  for  occa- 
sional difference  between  the  Latin  and  English  name 
will  be  presently  given. 

(1)  Yiola  Regina.         Queen  violet. 

(2)  "      Psyche.         Ophelia's  pansy. 

(3)  "      Alpium.         Freneli's  pansy. 
(£)      u      Aurea.  Golden  violet. 

(5)  u      Montana.       Mountain  Yiolet. 

(6)  u      Mirabilis.      Marvellous  violet. 

(7)  • "      Arvensis.      Field  violet. 

(8)  "      Palustris.      Marsh  violet. 

(9)  "      Seclusa.         Monk's  violet. 

(10)  "      Canina.          Dog  violet. 

(11)  "      Cornuta.       Cow  violet. 

(12)  «      Rupestris.     Crag  violet. 

25.  ^Ye  will  try,  presently,  what  is  to  be  found  out  of 
useful,  or  pretty,  concerning  all  these  twelve  violets; 
but  must  first  find  out  how  we  are  to  know  which  are 
violets  indeed,  and  which,  pansies. 

Yesterday,  after  finishing  my  list,  I  went  out  again  to 
examine  Yiola  Cornuta  a  little  closer,  and  pulled  up  a 
full  grip  of  it  by  the  roots,  and  put  it  in  water  in  a  wash- 
hand  basin,  which  it  filled  like  a  truss  of  green  hay. 


20  PROSERPINA. 

Pulling  out  two  or  three  separate  plants,  I  find  each 
to  consist  mainly  of  a  jointed  stalk  of  a  kind  I  have  not 
yet  described, — roughly,  some  two  feet  long  altogether ; 
(accurately,  one  1  ft.  10J  in. ;  another,  1  ft.  10  in. ;  an- 
other, 1  ft.  9  in. — but  all  these  measures  taken  without 
straightening,  and  therefore  about  an  inch  short  of  the 
truth),  and  divided  into  seven  or  eight  lengths  by  clumsy 
joints  where  the  mangled  leafage  is  knotted  on  it ;  but 
broken  a  little  out  of  the  way  at  each  joint,  like  a  rheu- 
matic elbow  that  won't  come  straight,  or  bend  farther  • 
and — which  is  the  most  curious  point  of  all  in  it — it  is 
thickest  in  the  middle,  like  a  viper,  and  gets  quite  thin 
to  the  root  and  thin  towards  the  flower ;  also  the  lengths 
between  the  joints  are  longest  in  the  middle :  here  I 
give  them  in  inches,  from  the  root  upwards,  in  a  stalk 
taken  at  random. 


1st  (nearest  root) 

Of 

2nd          ... 

Of 

3rd 

1* 

4th           . 

If 

5th          ... 

3 

6th          ... 

4 

7th          ... 

3i 

8th 

3 

9th 

2* 

10th 

n 

1  ft.  9f  in. 

But  the  thickness  of  the  joints  and  length  of  terminal 
flower  stalk  bring  the  total  to  two  feet  and  about  an  inch 


I.    VIOLA.  21 

over.  I  dare  not  pull  it  straight,  or  should  break  it,  but 
it  overlaps  my  two-foot  rule  considerably,  and  there  are 
two  inches  besides  of  root,  which  are  merely  under- 
ground stem,  very  thin  and  wretched,  as  the  rest  of  it  is 
merely  root  above  ground,  very  thick  and  bloated.  (I 
begin  actually  to  be  a  little  awed  at  it,  as  I  should  be  by 
a  green  snake — only  the  snake  would  be  prettier.)  The 
flowers  also,  I  perceive,  have  not  their  two  horns  regu- 
larlv  set  in,  but  the  five  spiky  calyx-ends  stick  out  be- 
tween the  petals — sometimes  three,  sometimes  four,  it 
iniiy  be  all  five  up  and  down — and  produce  variously 
fanged  of  forked  effects,  feebly  ophidian  or  diabolic. 
On  the  whole,  a  plant  entirely  mismanaging  itself, — 
reprehensible  and  awkward,  with  taints  of  worse  than 
awkwardness ;  and  clearly,  no  true  k  species,'  but  only  a 
link.*  And  it  really  is,  as  you  will  find  presently,  a 
link  in  two  directions ;  it  is  half  violet,  half  pansy,  a 
' cur' among  the  Dogs,  and  a  thoughtless  thing  among 
the  thoughtful.  And  being  so,  it  is  also  a  link  between 
the  entire  violet  tribe  and  the  Runners — pease,  straw- 
berries, and  the  like,  whose  glory  is  in  their  speed ;  but 
a  violet  has  no  business  whatever  to  run  anywhere, 
being  appointed  to  stay  where  it  was  born,  in  extremely 
contented  (if  not  secluded)  places.  u  Half-hidden  from 
the  eye?'' — no;  but  desiring  attention,  or  extension,  or 
corpulence,  or  connection  with  anybody  else's  family, 
still  I 

*  See  '  Deucalion/  vol.  ii.,  chap,  i.,  p.  12,  §  18. 


22 


PROSERPINA. 


26.  And  if,  at  the  time  you  read  this,  you  can  run  out 
and  gather  a  true  violet,  and  its  leaf,  you  will  find  that 
the  flower  grows  from  the  very  ground,  out  of  a  cl.ister 
of  heart-shaped  leaves,  becoming  here  a  little  rounder, 
there  a  little  sharper,  but  on  the  whole  heart-shaped,  and 
that  is  the  proper  and  essential  form  of  the  violet  leaf. 
You  will  find  also  that  the  flower  has  five  petals ;  and 
being  held  down  by  the  bent  stalk,  two  of  them  bend 
back  and  up,  as  if  resisting  it ;  two  expand  at  the  sides ; 

and  one,  the  principal,  grows  downwards, 
with  its  attached  spur  behind.  So  that  the 
front  view  of  the  flower  must  be  some  modifi- 
cation of  this  typical  arrangement,  Fig,  M, 
(for  middle  form).  Now  the  statement  above 
quoted  from  Figuier,  §  16,  means,  if  he  had 
been  able  to  express  himself,  that  the  two  lat- 
eral petals  in  the  violet  are  directed  down- 
wards, Fig.  II.  A,  and  in  the  pansy  upwards, 
Fig.  II.  c.  And  that,  in  the  main,  is  true, 
and  to  be  fixed  well  and  clearly  in  your  mind. 
But  in  the  real  orders,  one  flower  passes  into 
c  the  other  through  all  kinds  of  intermediate 
IG'  '  positions  of  petal,  and  the  plurality  of  species 
are  of  the  middle  type,  Fig.  II.  B.* 

27.  Next,  if  you   will  gather  a  real  pansy  leaf,  you 
will  find  it — not  heart-shape  in  the  least,  but  sharp  oval 

*  I  am  ashamed  to  give  so  rude  outlines;  but  every  moment  now 
is  valuabl  e  to  me:  careful  outline  of  a  dog-violet  is  given  in  Plate  X. 


X. 
VIOLA  CANINA. 

Structural  Details. 


I.    VIOLA.  23 

or  spear- shape,  with  two  deep  cloven  lateral  flakes  at  its 
springing  from  the  stalk,  which,  in  ordinary  aspect,  give 
the  plant  the  haggled  and  draggled  look  I  have  been 
vilifying  it  for.  These,  and  such  as  these,  "leaflets  at 
the  base  of  other  leaves"  (Balfour's  Glossary),  are  called 
by  botanists  'stipules.'  I  have  not  allowed  the  word 
yet,  and  am  doubtful  of  allowing  it,  because  it  entirely 
confuses  the  student's  sense  of  the  Latin  'stipula'  (see 
above,  vol.  i.,  chap,  viii.,  §  27)  doubly  and  trebly  im- 
portant in  its  connection  with  'stipulor,'  not  noticed  in 
that  paragraph,  but  readable  in  your  large  Johnson  ;  we 
shall  have  more  to  say  of  it  when  we  come  to  '  straw ' 
itself. 

28.  In  the  meantime,  one  may  think  of  these  things 
as  stipulations  for  leaves,  not  fulfilled,  or  'stumps'  or 
'  sumphs  '  of  leaves  !  But  I  think  I  can  do  better  for 
them.  We  have  already  got  the  idea  of  crested  leaves, 
(see  vol.  i.,  plate);  now,  on  each  side  of  a  knight's  crest, 
from  earliest  Etruscan  times  down  to  those  of  the  Scalas, 
the  fashion  of  armour  held,  among  the  nations  who 
wished  to  make  themselves  terrible  in  aspect,  of  putting 
cut  plates  or  ;  bracts '  of  metal,  like  dragons'  wings,  on 
each  side  of  the  crest.  I  believe  the  custom  never  be- 
came Xorman  or  English ;  it  is  essentially  Greek,  Etrus- 
can, or  Italian, — the  Gorman  and  Dane  always  wearing 
a  practical  cone  (see  the  coins  of  Canute),  and  the  Frank 
or  English  knights  the  severely  plain  beavered  helmet ; 
the  Black  Prince's  at  Canterbury,  and  Henry  Y.'s  at 


PROSERPINA. 


Westminster,  are  kept  hitherto  by  the  great  fates  for  us 
to  see.  But  the  Southern  knights  constantly  wore  these 
lateral  dragon's  wings;  and  if  I  can  find  their  special 
name,  it  may  perhaps  be  substituted  with  advantage  for 
1  stipule';  but  I  have  not  wit  enough  by  me  just  now  to 
invent  a  term. 

29.  Whatever  we  call  them,  the  things  themselves  are. 
throughout  all  the  species  of  violets,  developed  in  the 
running  and  weedy  varieties,  and  much  subdued  in  the 
beautiful   ones;    and  generally  the    pansies  have  them 
large,  with  spear-shaped  central  leaves ;  and  the  violets 
small,  with  heart-shaped  leaves,  for  more  effective  deco- 
ration of  the  ground.     I  now  note  the  characters  of  each 
species  in  their  above  given  order. 

30.  I.    YIOLA  KEGINA.     Queen  Yiolet.    Sweet  Yiolet. 
4  Viola  Odorata,'  L.,  Flora  Danica,  and  Sowerby.     The 
latter  draws  it  with  golden  centre  and  white  base  of 
lower  petal ;  the  Flora  Danica,  all  purple.     It  is  some- 
times altogether  white.     It  is  seen  most  perfectly  for 
setting  off  its  colour,  in  group  with  primrose,— and  most 
luxuriantly,  so  far  as  I  know,  in  hollows  of  the  Savoy 
limestones,  associated   with    the  pervenche,  which   em- 
broiders and  illumines  them  all  over.     I  believe  it  is  the 
earliest  of    its  race,  sometimes  called   'Martia,'   March 
violet.     In  Greece  and  South  Italy  even  a  flower  of  the 
winter. 

"  The  Spring  is  come,  the  violet's  gene, 
The  first-born  child  of  the  early  sun. 


I.    YIOLA.  25 

With  us,  she  is  but  a  winter's  flower; 

The  snow  on  the  hills  cannot  blast  her  bower, 

And  she  lifts  up  her  dewy  eye  of  blue 

To  the  youngest  sky  of  the  selfsame  hue, 

And  when  the  Spring  comes,  with  her  host 
Of  flowers,  that  flower  beloved  the  most 
Shrinks  from  the  crowd  that  may  confuse 
Her  heavenly  odour,  and  virgin  hues. 

Pluck  the  others,  but  still  remember 
Their  herald  out  of  dim  December, — 
The  morning  star  of  all  the  flowers, 
The  pledge  of  daylight's  lengthened  hours, 
Nor,  midst  the  roses,  e'er  forget 
The  virgin,  virgin  violet."  * 

3.  It  is  the  queen,  not  only  of  the  violet  tribe,  but  of 
all  low-growing  flowers,  in  sweetness  of  scent — variously 
applicable  and  serviceable  in  domestic  economy : — the 
scent  of  the  lily  of  the  valley  seerns  less  capable  of  pres- 
ervation or  use. 

But,  respecting  these  perpetual  beneficences  and  be- 
nignities of  the  sacred,  as  opposed  to  the  malignant, 
herbs,  whose  poisonous  power  is  for  the  most  part  re- 

*  A  careless  bit  of  Byron's,  (the  last  song  but  one  in  the  '  Deformed 
Transformed');  but  Byron's  most  careless  work  is  better,  by  its  in- 
nate energy,  than  other  people's  most  laboured.  I  suppress,  in  some 
doubts  about  my  '  digamma,'  notes  on  the  Greek  violet  and  the  Ion 
of  Euripides; — which  the  reader  will  perhaps  be  good  enough  to 
fancy  a  serious  loss  to  him,  and  supply  for  himself . 


26  PROSERPINA. 

strained  in  them,  during  their  life,  to  their  juices  or  dust, 
and  not  allowed  sensibly  to  pollute  the  air,  I  should  like 
the  scholar  to  re-read  pp.  251,  252  of  vol.  i.,  and  then  to 
consider  with  himself  what  a  grotesquely  warped  and 
gnarled  thing  the  modern  scientific  mind  is,  which  fierce- 
ly busies  itself  in  venomous  chemistries  that  blast  every 
leaf  from  the  forests  ten  miles  round ;  and  yet  cannot 
tell  us,  nor  even  think  of  telling  us,  nor  does  even  one 
of  its  pupils  think  of  asking  it  all  the  while,  how  a  violet 
throws  off  her  perfume ! — far  less,  whether  it  might  not 
be  more  wholesome  to  '  treat '  the  air  which  men  are  to 
breathe  in  masses,  by  administration  of  vale-lilies  and 
violets,  instead  of  charcoal  and  sulphur ! 

The  closing  sentence  of  the  first  volume  just  now  re- 
ferred to — p.  254 — should  also  be  re-read ;  it  was  the 
sum  of  a  chapter  I  had  in  hand  at  that  time  on  the  Sub- 
stances and  Essences  of  Plants — which  never  got  fin- 
ished;— and  in  trying  to  put  it  into  small  space,  it 
has  become  obscure :  the  terms  "  logically  inexplicable" 
meaning  that  no  words  or  process  of  comparison  will  de- 
fine scents,  nor  do  any  traceable  modes  of  sequence  or 
relation  connect  them ;  each  is  an  independent  power, 
and  gives  a  separate  impression  to  the  senses.  Above 
all,  there  is  no  logic  of  pleasure,  nor  any  assignable 
reason  for  the  difference,  between  loathsome  and  de- 
lightful scent,  which  makes  the  fungus  foul  and  the 
vervain  sacred :  but  one  practical  conclusion  I  (who  am 
in  all  final  ways  the  most  prosaic  and  practical  of  human 


I.    VIOLA.  27 

creatures)  do  very  solemnly  beg  my  readers  to  meditate ; 
namely,  that  although  not  recognized  by  actual  offensive- 
ne?s  of  scent,  there  is  no  space  of  neglected  land  which 
is  not  in  some  way  modifying  the  atmosphere  of  all  the 
world, — it  may  be,  beneficently,  as  heath  and  pine, — it 
may  be,  malignantly,  as  Pontine  marsh  or  Brazilian 
jungle ;  but,  in  one  way  or  another,  for  good  and  evil 
constantly,  by  day  and  night,  the  various  powers  of  life 
and  death  in  the  plants  of  the  desert  are  poured  into  the 
air,  as  vials  of  continual  angels  :  and  that  no  words,  no 
thoughts  can  measure,  nor  imagination  follow,  the  possi- 
ble change  for  good  which  energetic  and  tender  care  of 
the  wild  herbs  of  the  field  and  trees  of  the  wood  might 
bring,  in  time,  to  the  bodily  pleasure  and  mental  power 
of  Man. 

32.  II.  VIOLA  PSYCHE.     Ophelia's  Pansy. 

The  wild  heart's-ease  of  Europe  ;  its  proper  colour  an 
exquisitely  clear  purple  in  the  upper  petals,  gradated 
into  deep  blue  in  the  lower  ones ;  the  centre,  gold.  Not 
larger  than  a  violet,  but  perfectly  formed,  and  firmly  set 
in  all  its  petals.  Able  to  live  in  the  driest  ground ; 
beautiful  in  the  coast  sand-hills  of  Cumberland,  follow- 
ing the  wild  geranium  and  burnet  rose :  and  distin- 
guished thus  by  its  power  of  life,  in  waste  and  dry 
places,  from  the  violet,  which  needs  kindly  earth  and 
shelter. 

Quite  one  of  the  most  lovely  things  that  Heaven  has 
made,  and  only  degraded  and  distorted  by  any  human 


28  PROSERPINA. 

interference ;  the  swollen  varieties  of  it  produced  by 
cultivation  being  all  gross  in  outline  and  coarse  in  colour 
by  comparison. 

It  is  badly  drawn  even  in  the  '  Flora  Danica,'  No.  623, 
considered  there  apparently  as  a  species  escaped  from 
gardens  ;  the  description  of  it  being  as  follows  : — 

"Yiola  tricolor  hortensis  repens,  flore  purpureo  et 
cceruleo,  C.  B.  P.,  199."  (I  don't  know  what  C.  B.  P. 
means.)  "  Passim,  juxta  villas." 

"  Yiola  tricolor,,  caule  triquetro  diffuso,  foliis  oblongis 
incisis,  stipulis  pinnatifidis,"  Linn.  Systema  Naturae,  185. 

33.  "  Near  the  country  farms " — does  the  Danish 
botanist  mean? — the  more  luxuriant  weedy  character 
probably  acquired  by  it  only  in  such  neighbourhood  ; 
and,  I  suppose,  various  confusion  and  degeneration  pos- 
sible to  it  beyond  other  plants  when  once  it  leaves  its 
wild  home.  It  is  given  by  Sibthorpe  from  the  Trojan 
Olympus,  with  an  exquisitely  delicate  leaf ;  the  flower  de- 
scribed as  "  triste  et  pallide  violaceus,"  but  coloured  in 
his  plate  full  purple ;  and  as  he  does  not  say  whether  he 
went  up  Olympus  to  gather  it  himself,  or  only  saw  it 
brought  down  by  the  assistant  whose  lovely  drawings 
are  yet  at  Oxford,  I  take  leave  to  doubt  his  epithets. 
That  this  should  be  the  only  Yiolet  described  in  a  f  Flora 
Grseca'  extending  to  ten  folio  volumes,  is  a  fact  in 
modern  scientific  history  which  I  must  leave  the  Pro- 
fessor of  Botany  and  the  Dean  of  Christ  Church  to 
explain. 


I.    VIOLA.  29 


34.  The  English  varieties  seem  often  to  be  yellow  in 
the   lower  petals,  (see  Sowerby's  plate,  1287  of  the  old 
edition)  ,  crossed,  I  imagine,  with  Yiola  Aurea,  (but  see 
under  Yiola   Eupestris,  No.  12)  ;  the  names,  also,  vary- 
ing between  tricolor   and   bicolor  —  with   no  note   any- 
where of  the  three  colours,  or  two  colours,  intended  ! 

The  old  English  names  are  many.  —  '  Love  in  idleness,' 
—  making  Lysander,  as  Titania,  much  wandering  in  mind, 
and  for  a  time  mere  c  Kits  run  the  street  '  (or  run  the 
wood?)—  "Call  me  to  you"  (Gerarde,  ch.  299,  Sowerby, 
No.  178),  with  4  Herb  Trinity,'  from  its  three  colours, 
blue,  purple,  and  gold,  variously  blended  in  different 
countries  $  '  Three  faces  under  a  hood  '  describes  the 
English  variety  only.  Said  to  be  the  ancestress  of  all 
the  florists'  pansies,  but  this  I  much  doubt,  the  next 
following  species  being  far  nearer  the  forms  most  chiefly 
sought  for. 

35.  III.  YIOLA  ALPIXA.     '  Freneli's  Pansy  '  —  my  own 
name   for   it,   from    GotthelPs   Freneli,   in   'Ulric   the 
Farmer';  the  entirely  pure  and  noble  type  of  the  Ber- 
nese maid,  wife,  and  mother. 

The  pansy  of  the  Wengern  Alp  in  specialty,  and  of 
the  higher,  but  still  rich,  Alpine  pastures.  Full  dark- 
purple  ;  at  least  arf  inch  across  the  expanded  petals  ;  I 
believe,  the  'Mater  Yiolarum'  of  Gerarde;  and  true 
black  violet  of  Yirgil,  remaining  in  Italian  '  Yiola  Mam- 
mola  '  (Gerarde,  ch.  298)." 

36.  IY.  YIOLA  AUEEA.     Golden  Yiolet.     Biflora  usu- 


30  PROSERPINA. 

ally  ;  but  its  brilliant  yellow  is  a  much  more  definite 
characteristic  ;  and  needs  insisting  on,  because  there  is  a 
'Viola  lutea'  which  is  not  yellow  at  all;  named  so  by 
the  garden  florists.  My  Viola  aurea  is  the  Rock-violet 
of  the  Alps ;  one  of  the  bravest,  brightest,  and  dearest 
of  little  flowers.  The  following  notes  upon  it,  with  its 
summer  companions,  a  little  corrected  from  my  diary  of 
1877,  will  enough  characterize  it. 

"  June  1th. — The  cultivated  meadows  now  grow  only 
dandelions — in  frightful  quantity  too ;  but,  for  wild 
ones,  primula,  bell  gentian,  golden  pansy,  and  anemone, — 
Primula  farinosa  in  mass,  the  pansy  pointing  and  vivify- 
ing in  a  petulant  sweet  way,  and  the  bell  gentian  here 
and  there  deepening  all, — as  if  indeed  the  sound  of  a 
deep  bell  among  lighter  music. 

"  Counted  in  order,  I  find  the  effectively  constant 
flowers  are  eight  ;*  namely, 

"  1.  The  golden  anemone,  with  richly  cut  large  leaf ; 
primrose  colour,  and  in  masses  like  primrose,  studded 
through  them  with  bell  gentian,  and  dark  purple  orchis. 

"  2.  The  dark  purple  orchis,  with  bell  gentian  in  equal 
quantity,  say  six  of  each  in  square  yard,  broken  by 
sparklings  of  the  white  orchis  and  the  white  grass-flower  ; 
the  richest  piece  of  colour  I  ever  saw}  touched  with  gold 
by  the  geum. 


*  Nine  ;  I  see  that  I  missed  count  of  P.  farinosa,  the  most  abund- 
ant of  all. 


I.    YIOLA.  31 

"  3  arid  4.  These  will  be  white  orchis  and  the  grass 
flower.* 

"  5.  Geum — everywhere,  in  deep,  but  pure,  gold,  like 
pieces  of  Greek  mosaic. 

"  6.  Soldanella,  in  the  lower  meadows,  delicate,  but 
not  here  in  masses. 

"  7.  Primula  Alpina,  divine  in  the  rock  clefts,  and  on 
the  ledges  changing  the  grey  to  purple, — set  in  the  drip- 
ping caves  with 

"  8.  Viola  ('pertinax — pert) ;  I  want  a  Latin  word  for 
various  studies — failures  all — to  express  its  saucy  little 
stuck-up  way,  and  exquisitely  trim  peltate  leaf.  I  never 
saw  such  a  lovely  perspective  line  as  the  pure  front  leaf 
profile.  Impossible  also  to  get  the  least  of  the  spirit  of 
its  lovely  dark  brown  fibre  markings.  Intensely  golden 
these  dark  fibres,  just  browning  the  petal  a  little  between 
them." 

And  again  in  the  defile  of  Gondo,  I  find  "  Yiola  (sax- 
atilis  ?)  name  yet  wanted ; — in  the  most  delicate  studding 
of  its  round  leaves,  like  a  small  fern  more  than  violet, 
and  bright  sparkle  of  small  flowers  in  the  dark  dripping 
hollows.  Assuredly  delights  in  shade  and  distilling 
moisture  of  rocks." 

*  "A  feeble  little  quatref  oil — growing  one  on  the  stem,  like  a  Par- 
nassia.  and  looking  like  a  Parnassia  that  had  dropped  a  leaf.  I  think  it 
drops  one  of  its  own  four,  mostly,  and  lives  as  three-fourths  of  itself, 
for  most  of  its  time.  Stamens  pale  gold.  Root-leaves,  three  or  four, 
grass-like  ;  growing  among  the  moist  moss  chiefly." 


32  PROSERPINA. 

I  found  afterwards  a  much  larger  yellow  pansy  on  the 
Yorkshire  high  limestones  ;  with  vigorously  black  crow- 
foot marking  on  the  lateral  petals. 

37.  Y.  YIOLA  MONTANA.     Mountain  Yiolet. 

Flora  Danica,  1329.  Linnaeus,  No.  13,  "  Caulibus 
erectis,  foliis  cordato-lanceolatis,  floribus  serioribus  apeta- 
lis,"  i.e.9  on  erect  stems,  with  leaves  long  heart-shape, 
and  its  later  flowers  without  petals — not  a  word  said  of 
its  earlier  flowers  which  have  got  those  unimportant  ap- 
pendages !  In  the  plate  of  the  Flora  it  is  a  very  perfect 
transitional  form  between  violet  and  pansy,  with  beauti- 
fully firm  and  well-curved  leaves,  but  the  colour  of  blos- 
som very  pale.  "  In  subalpinis  Norvegiae  passim,"  all 
that  we  are  told  of  it,  means  I  suppose,  in  the  lower 
Alpine  pastures  of  Norway ;  in  the  Flora  Suecica,  p. 
306,  habitat  in  Lapponica,  juxta  Alpes. 

38.  YI.  YIOLA  MIRABILIS.     Flora  Danica,  1045.      A 
small   and   exquisitely   formed   flower  in   the  balanced 
cinquefoil   intermediate   between  violet  and  pansy,  but 
with  large  and  superbly  curved  and  pointed  leaves.     It 
is  a  mountain  violet,  but  belonging  rather  to  the  moun- 
tain  woods  than   meadows.     "In   sylvaticis  in  Toten, 
Norvegiae." 

London,  3056,  "  Broad-leaved  :  Germany." 
Linnaeus,  Flora  Suecica,  789,  says  that  the  flowers  of 
it  which  have  perfect  corolla  and  full  scent  often  bear 
no  seed,  but  that  the  later  'cauline'  blossoms,  without 
petals,  are  fertile.  "  Caulini  vero  apetali  fertiles  sunt, 
et  seriores.  Habitat  passim  Upsaliae." 


I.    VIOLA.  33 

I  find  this,  and  a  plurality  of  other  species,  indicated 
by  Linnaeus  as  having  triangular  stalks,  "  caule  triquetro," 
meaning,  I  suppose,  the  kind  sketched  in  Figure  1  above. 

39.  Til.  TIOLA  AKVEXSIS.     Field  Tiolet.    Flora  Dan- 
ica,  1748.     A  coarse  running  weed;  nearly  like  Tiola 
Cornuta,  but  feebly  lilac  and  yellow  in  colour.     In  dry 
fields,  and  with  corn. 

Flora  Suecica,  791 ;  under  titles  of  Tiola  'tricolor' 
and  'bicolor  arvensis,'  and  Herba  Trinitatis.  Habitat 
ubique  in  sterilibus  arvis :  "  Planta  vix  datur  in  qua 
evidentius  perspicitur  generationis  opus,  quam  in  hujus 
cavo  apertoque  stigmate." 

It  is  quite  undeterminable,  among  present  botanical 
instructors,  how  far  this  plant  is  only  a  rampant  and 
over-indulged  condition  of  the  true  pansy  (Tiola  Psyche)  ; 
but  my  own  scholars  are  to  remember  that  the  true 
pansy  is  full  purple  and  blue  with  golden  centre ;  and 
that  the  disorderly  field  varieties  of  it,  if  indeed  not 
scientifically  distinguishable,  are  entirely  separate  Iroin 
the  wild  flower  by  their  scattered  form  and  faded  or 
altered  colour.  I  follow  the  Flora  Danica  in  giving 
them  as  a  distinct  species. 

40.  Till.  TIOLA  PALUSTEIS.      Marsh  Tiolet.      Flora 
Danica,  83.     As  there  drawn,  the  most  finished  and  deli- 
eate  in  form  of  all  the  violet  tribe ;  warm  white,  streaked 
with  red ;  and  as  pure  in  outline  as  an  oxalis,  both  in 
flower  and  leaf :  it  is  like  a  violet  imitating  oxalis  and 
anagallis. 

3 


34  PROSEKPIXA. 

In  the  Flora  Suecica,  the  petal-markings  are  said  to  be 
black ;  in  c  Yiola  lactea '  a  connected  species,  (Sowerby, 
45,)  purple.  Sowerby's  plate  of  it  under  the  name 
'  palustris '  is  pale  purple  veined  with  darker ;  and  the 
spur  is  said  to  be  '  honey-bearing,'  which  is  the  first  men- 
tion I  find  of  honey  in  the  violet.  The  habitat  given, 
sandy  and  turfy  heaths.  It  is  said  to  grow  plentifully 
near  Croydon. 

Probably,  therefore,  a  violet  belonging  to  the  chalk, 
on  which  nearly  all  herbs  that  grow  wild — from  the 
grass  to  the  bluebell — are  singularly  sweet  and  pure.  I 
hope  some  of  my  botanical  scholars  will  take  up  this 
question  of  the  effect  of  different  rocks  on  vegetation, 
not  so  much  in  bearing  different  species  of  plants,  as 
different  characters  of  each  species.* 

41.  IX.  VIOLA  SECLUSA.  Monk's  Violet.  "Hirta," 
Flora  Danica,  618,  "  In  fruticetis  raro."  A  true  wood 
violet,  full  but  dim  in  purple.  Sowerby,  894,  makes  it 
paler.  The  leaves  very  pure  and  severe  in  the  Danish 
one ; — longer  in  the  English.  "  Clothed  on  both  sides 
with  short,  dense,  hoary  hairs." 

Also  belongs  to  chalk  or  limestone  only  (Sowerby), 

X.  VIOLA  CAJSTNA.  Dog  Violet.  I  have  taken  it  for 
analysis  in  my  two  plates,  because  its  grace  of  form  is 
too  much  despised,  and  we  owe  much  more  of  the  beauty 


*  The  great  work  of  Lecoq,  '  Geographic  Botanique,'  is  of  priceless 
value ;  but  treats  all  on  too  vast  a  scale  for  our  purposes. 


I.   VIOLA.  35 

of  spring  to  it,  in  English  mountain  ground,  than  to  the 
Regina. 

XI.  YIOLA  COBXUTA.    Cow  Yiolet.    Enough  described 
already. 

XII.  YIOLA  KUPESTRIS.     Crag  Yiolet.     On  the  high 
limestone  moors  of  Yorkshire,  perhaps  only  an  English 
form  of  Yiola  Aurea,  but  so  much  larger,  and  so  differ- 
ent in  habit — growing  on  dry  breezy  downs,  instead  of 
in  dripping  caves — that  I  allow  it,  for  the  present,  sep- 
arate name  and  number.* 

42.  {  For  the  present,'  I  say  all  this  work  in  *  Proser- 
pina' being  merely  tentative,  much  to  be  modified  by 
future  students,  and  therefore  quite  different  from  that 
of  *  Deucalion,'  which  is  authoritative  as  far  as  it  reaches, 
and  will  stand  out  like  a  quartz  dyke,  as  the  sandy  specu- 
lations of  modern  gossiping  geologists  get  washed  away. 

But  in  the  meantime,  I  must  again  solemnly  warn  my 
girl-readers  against  all  study  of  floral  genesis  and  diges- 
tion. How  far  flowers  invite,  or  require,  flies  to  inter- 
fere in  their  family  affairs — which  of  them  are  carnivo- 
rous— and  what  forms  of  pestilence  or  infection  are  most 
favourable  to  some  vegetable  and  animal  growths, — let 
them  leave  the  people  to  settle  who  like,  as  Toinette  says 


*  It  is,  I  believe,  Sowerby's  Viola  Lutea,  721  of  the  old  edition,  thero 
painted  with  purple  upper  petals;  but  he  says  in  the  text,  "Petals 
either  all  yellow,  or  the  two  uppermost  are  of  a  blue  purple,  the  rest 
yellow  with  a  blue  tinge  :  very  often  the  whole  are  purple." 


36  PROSERPINA. 

of  the  Doctor  in  the  '  Malade  Imaginaire ' — "  y  mettre  Je 
nez."  I  observe  a  paper  in  the  last  c  Contemporary  Re 
view,'  announcing  for  a  discovery  patent  to  all  mankind 
that  the  colours  of  flowers  were  made  "  to  attract  in- 
sects" !  *  They  will  next  hear  that  the  rose  was  made 
for  the  canker,  and  the  body  of  man  for  the  worm. 

43.  What  the  colours  of  flowers,  or  of  birds,  or  of 
precious  stones,  or  of  the  sea  and  air,  and  the  blue  moun- 
tains, and  the  evening  and  the  morning,  and  the  clouds 
of  Heaven,  were  given  for — they  only  know  who  can 
see  them  and  can  feel,  and  who  pray  that  the  sight  and 
the  love  of  them  may  be  prolonged,  where  cheeks  will 
not  fade,  nor  sunsets  die. 

44.  And  now,  to  close,  let  me  give  you  some  fuller 
account  of  the  reasons  for  the  naming  of  the  order  to 
which  the  violet  belongs,  '  Cytherides.' 

You  see  that  the  Uranides,  are,  as  far  as  I  could  so 
gather  them,  of  the  pure  blue  of  the  sky  ;  but  the  Cyther- 
ides of  altered  blue  ; — the  first,  Viola,  typically  purple  ; 
the  second,  Veronica,  pale  blue  with  a  peculiar  light ; 
the  third,  Ginlietta,  deep  blue,  passing  strangely  into  a 
subdued  green  before  and  after  the  full  life  of  the 
flower. 

All  these  three  flowers  have  great  strangenesses  in 
them,  and  weaknesses ;  the  Veronica  most  wonderful  in 

*  Did  the  wretch  never  hear  bees  in  a  lime  tree  then,  or  ever  see 
one  on  a  star  gentian  ? 


I.    VIOLA.  37 

its  connection  with  the  poisonous  tribe  of  the  foxgloves ; 
the  Giulietta,  alone  among  flowers  in  the  action  of  the 
shielding  leaves;  and  the  Viola,  grotesque  and  inexpli- 
cable in  its  hidden  structure,  but  the  most  sacred  of  all 
flowers  to  earthly  and  daily  Love,  both  in  its  scent  and 
glow. 

Now,  therefore,  let  us  look  completely  for  the  meaning 
of  the  two  leading  lines, — 

"  Sweeter  than  the  lids  of  Juno^s  eyes, 
Or  Cytherea's  breath." 

45.  Since,  in  my  present  writings,  I  hope  to  bring  into 
one  focus  the  pieces  of  study  fragmentarily  given  during 
past  life,  I  may  refer  my  readers  to  the  first  chapter  of 
the  *  Queen  of  the  Air '  for  the  explanation  of  the  way  in 
which  all  great  myths  are  founded,  partly  on  physical, 
partly  on  moral  fact, — so  that  it  is  not  possible  for  per- 
sons who  neither  know  the  aspect  of  nature,  nor  the  con- 
stitution of  the  human  soul,  to  understand  a  word  of 
them.  Naming  the  Greek  gods,  therefore,  you  have  first 
to  think  of  the  physical  power  they  represent.  When 
Horace  calls  Vulcan  <  Avidus,'  he  thinks  of  him  as  the 
power  of  Fire  ;  when  he  speaks  of  Jupiter's  red  right 
hand,  he  thinks  of  him  as  the  power  of  rain  with  lightning ; 
and  when  Homer  speaks  of  Juno's  dark  eyes,  you  have 
to  remember  that  she  is  the  softer  form  of  the  rain  power, 
and  to  think  of  the  fringes  of  the  rain-cloud  across  the 
light  of  the  horizon.  Gradually  the  idea  becomes  per- 


38  PROSERPINA. 

sonal  and  human  in  the  "  Dove's  eyes  within  thy  locks,"  * 
and  "  Dove's  eyes  by  the  river  of  waters"  of  the  Song  of 
Solomon. 

46.  "  Or  Cytherea's  breath,"— the  two  thoughts  of  soft- 
est glance,  and  softest  kiss,  being  thus  together  associated 
with  the  flower:  but  note  especially  that  the  Island  of 
Cythera  was  dedicated  to  Venus  because  it  was  the  chief, 
if  not  the  only  Greek  island,  in  whicli  the  purple  fishery 
of  Tyre  was  established  ;  and  in  our  own  minds  should 
be  marked  not  orfly  as  the  most  southern  fragment  of 
true  Greece,  but  the  virtual  continuation  of  the  chain  of 
mountains  which  separate  the  Spartan  from  the  Argive 
territories,  and  are  the  natural  home  of  the   brightest 
Spartan  and  Argive  beauty  which  is  symbolized  in  Helen. 

47.  And,  lastly,  in  accepting  for  the  order  this  name 
of  Cytherides,  you  are  to  remember  the  names  of  Viola 
and  Giulietta,  its  two  limiting  families,  as  those  of  Shak- 
speare's  two  most  loving  maids — the  two  who  love  sim- 
ply, and  to  the  death  :  as  distinguished  from  the  greater 
natures  in  whom  earthly  Love  has  its  due  part,  and  no 
more ;  and  farther  still  from  the  greatest,  in  whom  the 
earthly  love  is  quiescent,  or  subdued,  beneath  the  thoughts 
of  duty  and  immortality. 

It  may  be  well  quickly  to  mark  for  you  the  levels  of 


*  Septuagint,  "the  eyes  of  doves  out  of  thy  silence."  Vulgate,, 
"  the  eyes  of  doves,  besides  that  which  is  hidden  in  them."  Meaning 
—the  dim  look  of  love,  beyond  all  others  in  sweetness. 


I.   VIOLA.  39 

loving  temper  in  Shakspeare's  maids  and  wives,  from  tlie 
greatest  to  the  least. 

•iS.  1.  Isabel.  All  earthly  love,  and  the  possibilities  of 
it,  held  in  absolute  subjection  to  the  laws  of  God,  and  the 
judgments  of  His  will.  She  is  Shakspeare's  only  'Saint/ 
Queen  Catherine,  whom  you  might  next  think  of,  is  only 
an  ordinary  woman  of  trained  religious  temper: — her 
maid  of  honour  gives  Wolsey  a  more  Christian  epitaph. 

2.  Cordelia.  The  earthly  love  consisting  in  diffused 
compassion  of  the  universal  spirit ;  not  in  any  conquer- 
ing, personally  fixed,  feeling. 

'  Mine  enemy's  dog, 

Though  he  had  bit  me,  should  have  stood  that  night 
Against  my  fire." 

These  lines  are  spoken  in  her  hour  of  openest  direct  ex- 
pression ;  and  are  all  Cordelia. 

Shakspeare  clearly  does  not  mean  her  to  have  been 
supremely  beautiful  in  person ;  it  is  only  her  true  lover 
who  calls  her  i  fair '  and  i  f aire&t ' — and  even  that,  I 
believe,  partly  in  courtesy,  after  having  the  instant  be- 
fore offered  her  to  his  subordinate  duke ;  and  it  is  only 
his  scorn  of  her  which  makes  France  fully  care  for  her. 

"  Gods,  Gods,  'tis  strange  that  from  their  cold  neglect 
My  love  should  kindle  to  inflamed  respect !" 

Had  she  been  entirely  beautiful,  he  would  have  honoured 
her  as  a  lover  should,  even  before  he  saw  her  despised ; 


40  PROSERPINA. 

nor  would  she  ever  have  been  so  despised — or  by  her 
father,  mis  understood.  Shakspeare  himself  does  not  pre- 
tend to  know  where  her  girl-heart  was, — but  I  should 
like  to  hear  how  a  great  actress  would  say  the  "  Peace  be 
with  Burgundy !" 

3.  Portia.     The  maidenly  passion  now  becoming  great, 
and  chiefly  divine  in  its  humility,  is  still  held  absolutely 
subordinate  to  duty;  no  thought  of  disobedience  to  her 
dead  father's  intention  is  entertained  for  an  instant,  though 
the  temptation  is  marked  as  passing,  for  that  instant,  be- 
fore her  crystal  strength.     Instantly,  in  her  own  peace, 
she  thinks  chiefly  of  her  lover's; — she  is  a  perfect  Chris- 
tian wife  in  a  moment,  coming  to  her  husband  with  the 
gift  of  perfect  Peace, — 

"  Never  shall  you  lie  by  Portia's  side 
With  an  unquiet  soul." 

She  is  highest  in  intellect  of  all  Shakspeare's  women, 
and  this  is  the  root  of  her  modesty  ;  her  i  unlettered  girl' 
is  like  Newton's  simile  of  the  child  on  the  sea-shore. 
Her  perfect  wit  and  stern  judgment  are  never  disturbed 
for  an  instant  by  her  happiness  :  and  the  final  key  to  her 
character  is  given  in  her  silent  and  slow  return  from 
Venice,  where  she  stops  at  every  wayside  shrine  to  pray. 

4.  Hermione.     Fortitude  and  Justice  personified,  with 
unwearying  affection.     She  is  Penelope,  tried  by  her  hus- 
band's fault  as  well  as  error. 

5.  Virgilia.     Perfect  type  of  wife  and  mother,  but 


I.    VIOLA.  41 

without  definiteness  of  character,  nor  quite  strength  of 
intellect  enough  entirely  to  hold  her  husband's  heart. 
Else,  she  had  saved  him:  he  would  have  left  Rome  in  his 
wrath— but  not  her.  Therefore,  it  is  his  mother  only 
v.  ho  bends  him  :  but  she  cannot  save. 

G.  Imogen.  The  ideal  of  grace  and  gentleness ;  but 
weak ;  enduring  too  mildly,  and  forgiving  too  easily. 
But  the  piece  is  rather  a  pantomime  than  play,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  judge  of  the  feelings  of  St.  Columba,  when 
she  must  leave  the  stage  in  half  a  minute  after  mistaking 
the  headless  clown  for  headless  Arlecchino. 

7.  Desdemona,   Ophelia,  Rosalind.      They  are  under 
different  conditions  from  all  the  rest,  in  having  entirely 
heroic  and  faultless  persons  to  love.     I  can't  class  them, 
therefore, — fate  is  too  strong,  and  leaves  them   no  free 
will. 

8.  Perdita,  Miranda.     Rather  mythic  visions  of  maiden 
beauty  than  mere  girls. 

9.  Viola  and  Juliet.     Love  the  ruling  power  in  the  en- 
tire character :  wholly  virginal  and  pure,  but  quite  earth- 
ly, and  recognizing  no  other  life  than  his  own.     Viola  is, 
however,  far  the  noblest.     Juliet  will  die  unless  Romeo 
loves  her:  u  If  he  be  wed,  the  grave  is  like  to  be  my  wed- 
ding bed ;"  but  Viola  is  ready  to  die  for  the  happiness 
of  the  man  who  does  not  love  her ;  faithfully  doing  his 
messages  to  her  rival,  whom  she  examines  strictly  for  his 
sake.     It  is  not  in  envy  that  she  says,  u  Excellently  done, 
— if  God  did  all."     The  key  to  her  character  is  given  in 


42  PROSERPINA. 

the  least  selfish  of  all  lover's  songs,  the  one  to  which  the 
Duke  bids  her  listen  : 

"  Mark  it,  Cesario, — it  is  old  and  plain, 
The  spinsters  and  the  knitters  in  the  sun, 
And  the  free  maids,  that  weave  tJieir  thread  with  bones, 
Do  use  to  chaunt  it." 

(They,  the  unconscious  Fates,  weaving  the  fair  vanity  of 
life  with  death) ;  and  the  burden  of  it  is— 

"  My  part  of  Death,  no  one  so  true 
Did  share  it." 

Therefore  she  says,  in  the  great  first  scene,  u  Was  not 
this  love  indeed  ?"  and  in  the  less  heeded  closing  one, 
her  heart  then  happy  with  the  knitters  in  the  sun, 

"  And  all  those  sayings  will  I  over-swear, 
And  all  those  swearings  keep  as  true  in  soul 
As  doth  that  orbed  continent  the  Fire 
That  severs  day  from  night." 

Or,  at  least,  did  once  sever  day  from  night, — and  perhaps 
does  still  in  Illyria.  Old  England  must  seek  new  images 
for  her  loves  from  gas  and  electric  sparks, — not  to  say 
furnace  fire. 

I  am  obliged,  by  press  of  other  work,  to  set  down  these 
notes  in  cruel  shortness  :  and  many  a  reader  may  be  dis- 
posed to  question  utterly  the  standard  by  which  the 
measurement  is  made.  It  will  not  be  found,  on  reference 


I.    VIOLA.  43 

to  my  other  books,  that  they  encourage  young  ladies  to 
go  into  convents ;  or  undervalue  the  dignity  of  wives  and 
mothers.  But,  as  surely  as  the  sun  does  sever  day  from 
night,  it  will  be  found  always  that  the  noblest  and  love- 
liest women  are  dutiful  and  religious  by  continual  nature  ; 
and  their  passions  are  trained  to  obey  them ;  like  their 
dogs.  Homer,  indeed,  loves  Helen  with  all  his  heart, 
and  restores  her,  after  all  her  naughtiness^  to  the  queen- 
ship  of  her  household ;  but  he  never  thinks  of  her  as 
Penelope's  equal,  or  Iphigenia's.  Practically,  in  daily 
life,  one  often  sees  married  women  as  good  as  saints  ;  but 
rarely,  I  think,  unless  they  have  a  good  deal  to  bear  from 
their  husbands.  Sometimes  also,  no  doubt,  the  husbands 
have  some  trouble  in  managing  St.  Cecilia  or  St.  Eliza- 
beth ;  of  which  questions  I  shall  be  obliged  to  speak 
more  seriously  in  another  place :  content,  at  present,  if 
English  maids  know  better,  by  Proserpina's  help,  what 
Shakspeare  meant  by  the  dim,  and  Milton  by  the  glowing, 
violet. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

PINGUICULA. 

«      (Written  in  early  June,  1881.) 

1.  ON  the  rocks  of  my  little  stream,  where  it  runs,  or 
leaps,  through  the  moorland,  the  common  Pinguicula  is 
now  in  its  perfectest  beauty ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  off- 
shoots of  the  violet  tribe  which  I  have  to  place  in  the 
minor  collateral  groups  of  Yiola  very  soon,  and  must  not 
put  off  looking  at  it  till  next  year. 

There  are  three  varieties  given  in  Sowerby :  1.  Yul- 
garis,  2.  Greater-flowered,  and  3.  Lusitanica,  white,  for 
the  most  part,  pink,  or  '  carnea,'  sometimes :  but  the 
proper  colour  of  the  family  is  violet,  and  the  perfect 
form  of  the  plant  is  the  'vulgar'  one.  The  larger- 
flowered  variety  is  feebler  in  colour,  and  ruder  in  form  : 
the  white  Spanish  one,  however,  is  very  lovely,  as  far  as 
I  can  judge  from  Sowerby's  (old  Sowerby's)  pretty  draw- 
ing. 

The  '  frequent'  one  (I  shall  usually  thus  translate  '  vul- 
^aris '),  is  not  by  any  means  so  '  frequent '  as  the  Queen 
violet,  being  a  true  wild-country,  and  mostly  Alpine, 
plant ;  and  there  is  also  a  real  '  Pinguicula  Alpina,' 


II.    PINGUICULA.  45 

which  we  have  not  in  England,  who  might  be  the  Re- 
gina,  if  the  group  were  large  enough  to  be  reigned  over : 
but  it  is  better  not  to  affect  Royalty  among  these  con- 
fused, intermediate,  or  dependent  families. 

2.  In  all  the  varieties  of  Pinguicula,  each  blossom  has 
one  stalk  only,  growing  from  the  ground  ;  and  you  may 
pull  all  the  leaves  away  from  the  base  of  it,  and  keep 
the  flower  only,  with  its  bunch  of  short  fibrous  roots, 
half  an  inch  long ;    looking  as  if   bitten  at  the  ends. 
Two    flowers,  characteristically, — three    and   four   very 
often, — spring  from  the   same  root,   in  places  where  it 
grows    luxuriantly ;    and    luxuriant  growth    means   that 
clusters  of  some  twenty  or  thirty  stars  may  be  seen  on 
the  surface  of  a  square  yard  of  boggy  ground,  quite  to 
its  mind;  but  its  real  glory  is  in  harder  life,  in  the  cran- 
nies of  well- wetted  rock. 

3.  What  I  have  called  '  stars '  are  irregular  clusters  of 
approximately,  or  tentatively,  five  aloeine  ground  leaves, 
of  very  pale  green, — they  may  be  six  or  seven,  or  more, 
but  always  run  into  a  rudely  pentagonal  arrangement, 
essentially    first     trine,    with    two    succeeding    above. 
Taken  as  a  whole  the  plant  is  really  a  main  link  between 
violets  and   Droseras ;   but  the  flower  has  much  more 
violet  than  Drosera  in  the  make  of  it, — spurred,  and^tv?- 
petaled*  and  held  down  by  the  top  of  its  bending  stalk 


*  When  I  have  the  chance,  and  the  time,  to  submit  the  proofs  of 
'  Proserpina '  to  friends  who  know  more  of  Botany  than  I,  or  have 


46  PROSERPINA. 

as  a  violet  is ;  only  its  upper  two  petals  are  not  reverted 
— the  calyx,  of  a  dark  soppy  green,  holding  them  down, 
with  its  three  front  sepals  set  exactly  like  a  strong  tri- 
dent, its  two  backward  sepals  clasping  the  spur.  There 


kindness  enough  to  ascertain  debateable  things  for  me,  I  mean  in 
future  to  do  so, — using  the  letter  A  to  signify  Arnicas,  generally; 
with  acknowledgment  by  name,  when  it  is  permitted,  of  especial 
help  or  correction.  Note  first  of  this  kind:  I  find  here  on  this  word, 
'  five-petaled,'  as  applied  to  Pinguicula,  "  Qy.  two-lipped?  it  is  mono- 
petalous,  and  mouosepalous,  the  calyx  and  corolla  being  each  all  in 
one  piece." 

Yes  ;  and  I  am  glad  to  have  the  observation  inserted.  But  my 
term,  '  five  petaled,'  must  stand.  For  the  question  with  me  is  always 
first,  not  how  the  petals  are  connected,  but  how  many  they  are. 
Also  I  have  accepted  the  term  petal— but  never  the  word  lip— as  ap- 
plied to  flowers.  The  generic  term  '  Labiatae '  is  cancelled  in  '  Pro- 
serpina,' '  Vestal es'  being  substituted;  and  these  flowers,  when  Iconic 
to  examine  them,  arc  to  be  described,  not  as  divided  into  two  lips, 
but  into  hood,  apron,  and  side-pockets.  Farther,  the  depth  to  which 
either  calyx  or  corolla  is  divided,  and  the  firmness  with  which  the 
petals  are  attached  to  the  torus,  may,  indeed,  often  be  an  important 
part  of  the  plant's  description,  but  ought  not  to  be  elements  in  its 
definition.  Three  petaled  and  three-sepal ed,  four-petaled  and  four- 
sepaled,  five-petaled  and  five-sepal  ed,  etc.,  etc.,  are  essential— with 
me,  primal — elements  of  definition ;  next,  whether  resolute  or  stellar 
in  their  connection;  next,  whether  round  or  pointed,  etc.  Fancy, 
for  instance,  the  fatality  to  a  rose  of  pointing  its  petals,  and  to  a  lily, 
of  rounding  them!  But  how  deep  cut,  or  how  hard  holding,  is 
quite  a  minor  question. 

Farther,  that  all  plants  are  petaled  and  sepaled,  and  never  mere 
cups  in  saucers,  is  a  great  fact,  not  to  be  dwelt  on  in  a  note. 


II.    PINGUK*ULA.  47 

are  often  six  sepals,  four  to  the  front,  but  the  normal 
number  is  five.  Tearing  away  the  calyx,  I  find  the 
flower  to  have  been  held  by  it  as  a  lion  might  hold  his 
prey  by  the  loins  if  he  missed  its  throat ;  the  blue  petals 
being  really  campannlate,  and  the  flower  best  described 
as  a  dark  bluebell,  seized  and  crushed  almost  flat  by  its 
own  calyx  in  a  rage.  Pulling  away  now  also  the  upper 
petals,  I  find  that  what  are  in  the  violet  the  lateral  and 
well-ordered  fringes,  are  here  thrown  mainly  on  the 
lower  (largest)  petal  near  its  origin,  and  opposite  the 
point  of  the  seizure  by  the  calyx,  spreading  from  this 
centre  over  the  surface  of  the  lower  petals,  partly  like  an 
irregular  shower  of  fine  Venetian  glass  broken,  partly 
like  the  wild  flung  Medusa  like  embroidery  of  the  white 
Lucia.* 

4.  The  calyx  is  of  a  dark  soppy  green,  I  said;  like 
that  of  sugary  preserved  citron ;  the  root  leaves  are  of 
green  just  as  soppy,  but  pale  and  yellowish,  as  if  they 
were  half  decayed ;  the  edges  curled  up  and,  as  it  were, 
water-shri veiled,  as  one's  fingers  shrivel  if  kept  too  long 
in  water.  And  the  whole  plant  looks  as  if  it  had  been  a 
violet  unjustly  banished  to  a  bog,  and  obliged  to  live 
there — not  for  its  own  sins,  but  for  some  Emperor 
Pansy's,  far  away  in  the  garden, — in  a  partly  boggish, 

*  Our  '  Lucia  Nivea,'  '  Blanche  Lucy; '  in  present  botany,  Bog 
bean!  having  no  connection  whatever  with  any  manner  of  bean,  but 
only  a  slight  resemblance  to  bean-fcar^  in  its  own  lower  ones.  Com- 
pare Ch.  IV.  §  11. 


48  PROSERPINA. 

partly  hoggish  manner,  drenched  and  desolate ;  and  with 
something  of  demoniac  temper  got  into  its  calyx,  so  that 
it  quarrels  with,  and  bites  the  corolla ; — something  of 
gluttonous  and  greasy  habit  got  into  its  leaves;  a  dis- 
comfortable  sensuality,  even  in  its  desolation.  Perhaps 
a  penguin -ish  life  would  be  truer  of  it  than  a  piggish, 
the  nest  of  it  being  indeed  on  the  rock,  or  morassy  rock- 
investiture,  like  a  sea-bird's  on  her  rock  ledge. 

5.  I  have  hunted  through  seven  treatises  on  Botany, 
namely,  London's  Encyclopaedia,  Balfour,  Grindon,  Oli- 
ver, Baxter  of  Oxford,  Lindley  (c  Ladies'  Botany '),  and 
Figuier,  without  being  able  to  find  the  meaning  of  ;  Len- 
tibulariacese,'  to  which  tribe  the  Pinguicula  is  said  by 
them  all  (except  Figuier)  to  belong.  It  may  perhaps  be 
in  Sowerby  :*  but  these  above-named  treatises  are  pre- 
cisely of  the  kind  with  which  the  ordinary  scholar  must 
be  content :  and  in  all  of  them  he  has  to  learn  this  long, 
worse  than  useless,  word,  under  which  he  is  betrayed 
into  classing  together  two  orders  naturally  quite  distinct, 
the  Butterworts  and  the  Bladderworts. 

Whatever  the  name  may  mean — it  is  bad  Latin. 
There  is  such  a  word  as  Lenticularis — there  is  no  Lenti- 
bularis ;  and  it  must  positively  trouble  us  no  longer.f 


*  It  is  not.  (Resolute  negative  from  A.,  unsparing  of  time  for  me; 
and  what  a  state  of  things  it  all  signifies  !) 

f  With  the  following  three  notes, '  A '  must  become  a  definitely  and 
gratefully  interpreted  letter.  I  am  indebted  for  the  first,  conclusive 


II.    PINGUICULA.  49 

The  Butterworts  are  a  perfectly  distinct  group — 
whether  small  or  large,  always  recognizable  at  a  glance. 
Their  proper  Latin  name  will  be  Pinguicnla,  (plural 
Pinguiculse,) — their  English,  Bog- Violet,  or,  more  fa- 
miliarly, Butter  wort;  and  their  French,  as  at  present, 
Grassette. 

in  itself,  but  variously  supported  and  confirmed  by  the  two  following, 
to  K.  J.  Mann,  Esq.,  M.D.,  long  ago  a  pupil  of  Dr.  Linclley's,  and 
now  on  the  council  of  Whitelands  College,  Chelsea: — for  the  second, 
to  Mr.  Thomas  Moore,  F.L.S.,  the  kind  Keeper  of  the  Botanic  Gar- 
den at  Chelsea;  for  the  third,  which  will  be  farther  on  useful  to  us, 
to  Miss  Kemm,  the  botanical  lecturer  at  Whitelands. 

(1)  There  is  no  explanation  of  Lentibulariacese  in  Lindley's  '  Vege- 
table Kingdom.'    He  was  not  great  in  that  line.     The  term  is,  how- 
ever, taken  from  Lenticula,  the  lentil,  in  allusion  to  the  lentil-shaped 
air-bladders  of  the  typical  genus  Utricularia. 

The  change  of  the  c  into  b  may  possibly  have  been  made  only 
from  some  euphonic  fancy  of  the  contriver  of  the  name,  who,  I 
think,  was  Rich. 

But  I  somewhat  incline  myself  to  think  that  the  tibia,  a  pipe  or 
flute,  may  have  had  something  to  do  with  it.  The  tibia  may  possibly 
have  been  diminished  into  a  little  pipe  by  a  stretch  of  licence,  and 
have  become  tibula:  [but  tibulus  is  a  kind  of  pine  tree  in  Pliny]; 
when  Len  tibula  would  be  the  lens  or  lentil-shaped  pipe  or  bladder. 
I  give  you  this  only  for  what  it  is  worth.  The  lenticula,  as  a  deriva- 
tion, is  reliable  and  has  authority. 

Lenticula,  a  lentil,  a  freckly  eruption;  Zenttcularis,  lentil-shaped; 
so  the  nat.  ord.  ought  to  be  (if  this  be  right)  lenticulariacecs. 

(2)  BOTANIC  GARDENS,  CHELSEA,  Feb.  14,  1882. 
Lentibularia  is  an  old  generic  name  of   Tournefort's,  which  has 

been  superseded  by  utricularia,  but,  oddly  enough,  has  been  retained 
4 


50  PROSERPINA. 

The  families   to  be   remembered  will    be  only  five, 
namely, 

1.  Pinguicula  Major,   the  largest  of  the  group.     As 
bog  plants,  Ireland  may  rightly  claim  the  noblest  of 
them,  which  certainly  grow  there  luxuriantly,  and  not  (I 
believe)  with  us.     Their  colour  is,  however,  more  broken 
and    less    characteristic    than    that    of    the    following 
species. 

2.  Pinguicula  Yiolacea:   Violet- coloured   Butterwort, 
(instead  of  '  vulgaris,')  the  common  English  and  Swiss 
kind  above  noticed. 

3.  Pinguicula  Alpina :  Alpine  Butterwort,  white  and 
much  smaller  than  either  of  the  first  two  families ;  the 

in  the  name  of  the  order  lentibularew ;  but  it  probably  comes  from 
lenticula,  which  signifies  the  little  root  bladders,  somewhat  resem- 
bling lentils. 

(3) '  Manual  of  Scientific  Terms/  Stormonth,  p.  234. 
Lenlibulariacece,  neuter,  plural. 

(Lenticula,  the  shape  of  a  lentil;  from  lens,  a  lentil.)  The  But- 
terwort family,  an  order  of  plants  so  named  from  the  lenticu- 
lar shape  of  the  air-bladders  on  the  branches  of  utricularia, 
one  of  the  genera.  (But  observe  that  the  Butterworts  have 
nothing  of  the  sort,  any  of  them. — R.) 
Loudon. — "  Floaters." 

Lindley. — "  Sometimes  with  whoiied  vesicles." 
In  Nuttall's  Standard  (?)  Pronouncing  Dictionary,  it  is  given, — 
Lenticular  ece,  a  nat.  ord.  of  marsh  plants,  which  thrive  in  water 
or  marshes. 


II.    PIXGUICULA.  51 

spur  especially  small,  according  to  D.  453.  Much  rarer, 
as  well  as  smaller,  than  the  other  varieties  in  Southern 
Europe.  "In  Britain,  known  only  upon  the  moors  of 
Rosehaugh,  Ross-shire,  where  the  progress  of  cultivation 
seems  likely  soon  to  efface  it."  (Grindon.) 

4.  Pingnicula  Pallida :  Pale  Butterwort.  From  Sow- 
erhy's  drawing,  (135,  vol.  iii.,)  it  would  appear  to  be  the 
most  delicate  and  lovely  of  all  the  group.  The  leaves, 
"  like  those  of  other  species,  but  rather  more  delicate 
and  pellucid,  reticulated  with  red  veins,  and  much  in- 
volute in  the  margin.  Tube  of  the  corolla,  yellow, 
streaked  with  red,  (the  streaks  like  those  of  a  pansy)  ; 
the  petals,  pale  violet.  It  much  resembles  Yillosa,  (our 
Minima,  ~No.  5,)  in  many  particulars,  the  stem  being 
hairy,  and  in  the  lower  part  the  hairs  tipped  with  a 
viscid  fluid,  like  a  sundew.  But  the  Yillosa  has  a 
slender  sharp  spur;  and  in  this  the  spur  is  blunt  and 
thick  at  the  end."  (Since  the  hairy  stem  is  not  peculiar 
to  Villosa,  I  take  for  her,  instead,  the  epithet  Minima, 
which  is  really  definitive.) 

The  pale  one  is  commonly  called  '  Lusitanica,'  but  I 
find  no  direct  notice  of  its  Portuguese  habitation.  Sow- 
erlrrs  plant  came  from  Blandford,  Dorsetshire ;  and 
Grindon  says  it  is  frequent  in  Ireland,  abundant  in  Ar- 
ran.  and  extends  on  the  western  side  of  the  British  island 
from  Cornwall  to  Cape  Wrath.  My  epithet,  Pallida,  is 
secure,  and  simple,  wherever  the  plant  is  found. 


PROSERPINA. 

5.  Pinguieula  Minima  :  Least  Butterwort;  in  D.  1021 
called  Villosa,  the  scape  of  it  being  hairy.     I  have  not 

yet  got  rid  of  this  absurd  word  '  scape,' 
meaning,  in  botanist's  Latin,  the  flower-stalk 
of  a  flower  growing  out  of  a  cluster  of  leaves 
on  the  ground.  It  is  a  bad  corruption  of 
'sceptre,'  and  especially  false  and  absurd,  be- 
cause a  true  sceptre  is  necessarily  branched.* 
In  s  Proserpina,'  when  it  is  spoken  of  dis- 
tinctively, it  is  called  'virgula'  (see  vol.  i., 
pp.  146,  147,  151,  152).  The  hairs  on  the  vir- 
gula  are  in  this  instance  so  minute,  that  even 
with  a  lens  I  cannot  see  them  in  the  Danish 
plate  :  of  which  Fig.  3  is  a  rough  transla- 
tion into  woodcut,  to  show  the  grace  and 
FIG.  III.  mien  of  the  little  thing.  The  trine  leaf 
cluster  is  characteristic,  and  the  folding  up  of  the  leaf 
edges.  The  flower,  in  the  Danish  plate,  full  purple, 
Abundant  in  east  of  Finmar'k  (Finland?),  but  always 
growing  in  marsh  moss,  (Sphagnum  palustre). 

6.  I  call  it  '  Minima  '  only,  as  the  least  of  the  five  here 
named  ;  without  putting  forward  any  claim  for  it  to  be 
the  smallest  pinguicula  that  ever  was  or  will    be.     In 
such  sense  only,  the  epithets  minima  or  maxima  are  to, 
be  understood  when  used  in  'Proserpina':  and  so  also, 


More  accurately,  shows  the  pruned  roots  of  branches,  — 

rojurj}'  kv  ope&fa  XeX.ontRy.      The  pruning  is  the  mythic 
expression  of  the  subduing  of  passion  by  rectorial  law. 


II.    PINGUICULA.  53 

every  statement  and  every  principle  is  only  to  be  under- 
stood as  true  or  tenable,  respecting  the  plants  which  the 
writer  has  seen,  and  which  he  is  sure  that  the  reader 
can  easily  see :  liable  to  modification  to  any  extent  by 
wider  experience ;  but  better  first  learned  securely  with- 
in a  narrow  fence,  and  afterwards  trained  or  fructified, 
along  more  complex  trellises. 

7.  And  indeed  my  readers — at  least,  my  newly  found 
readers — must  note  always  that  the  only  power  which 
I  claim  for  any  of  my  books,  is  that  of  being  right  and 
true  as  far  as  they  reach.  None  of  them  pretend  to  be 
Kosmoses ; — none  to  be  systems  of  Positivism  or  Nega- 
tivism, on  which  the  earth  is  in  future  to  swing  instead 
of  on  its  old  worn-out  poles ; — none  of  them  to  be  works 
of  genius ; — none  of  them  to  be,  more  than  all  true  work 
must  be,  pious ; — and  none  to  be,  beyond  the  power  of 
common  people's  eyes,*  ears,  and  noses,  <  aesthetic.' 
They  tell  you  that  the  world  is  so  big,  and  can't  be  made 
bigger — that  you  yourself  are  also  so  big,  and  can't  be 
made  bigger,  however  you  puff  or  bloat  yourself ;  but 
that,  on  modern  mental  nourishment,  you  may  very 
easily  be  made  smaller.  They  tell  you  that  two  and  two 
are  four,  that  ginger  is  hot  in  the  mouth,  that  roses  are 
red,  and  smuts  black.  Not  themselves  assuming  to  be 

*  The  bitter  sorrow  with  which  I  first  recognized  the  extreme  rarity 
of  finely-developed  organic  sight  is  expressed  enough  in  the  lecture 
on  the  Mystery  of  Life,  added  in  the  large  edition  of  '  Sesame  and 
Lilies.' 


54  PROSERPINA. 

pious,  they  yet  assure  you  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
piety  in  the  world,  and  that  it  is  wiser  than  impiety ;  and 
not  themselves  pretending  to  be  works  of  genius,  they 
yet  assure  you  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  genius  in  the 
world,  and  that  it  is  meant  for  the  light  and  delight  of 
the  world. 

8.  Into  these   repetitions   of   remarks   on   my   work, 
often  made  before,  I  have  been  led  by  an  unlucky  author 
who  has  just  sent  me  his  book,  advising  me  that  it  is 
"neither  critical  nor  sentimental"  (he  had   better  have 
said  in  plain  English  "  without  either  judgment  or  feel- 
ing"), and  in  which  nearly  the  first  sentence  I  read  is — 
"  Solomon  with  all  his  acuteness  was  not  wise  enough  to 
.  .  .  etc.,  etc.,  etc."  ('  give  the  Jews  the  British  consti- 
tution,' I  believe  the  man  means.)     He  is  not  a  whit 
more  conceited  than  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  or  Mr.  Gold- 
win  Smith,  or  Professor  Tyndall, — or  any  lively  London 
apprentice  out  on  a  Sunday ;  but  this  general  supercili- 
ousness with  respect  to  Solomon,  his  Proverbs,  and  his 
politics,  characteristic  of  the  modern  Cockney,  Yankee, 
and  Anglicised  Scot,  is  a  difficult  thing  to  deal  with  for 
us  of  the  old  school,  who  were  well  whipped  when  we 
were  young ;  and  have  been  in  the  habit  of  occasionally 
ascertaining  our  own  levels  as  we  grew   older,  and  of 
recognizing  that,  here  and  there,  somebody  stood  higher, 
and  struck  harder. 

9.  A  difficult  thing  to  deal  with,  I    feel  more   and 
more,  hourly,  even  to  the  point  of  almost   ceasing  to 


II.    PINGUICULA.  55 

write;  not  only  every  feeling  I  have,  but,  of  late,  even 
every  word  I  use,  being  alike  inconceivable  to  the  inso- 
lence, and  unintelligible  amidst  the  slang,  of  the  modern 
London  writers.  Only  in  the  last  magazine  I  took  up,  I 
found  an  article  by  Mr.  Gold  win  Smith  on  the  Jews  (of 
which  the  gist — as  far  as  it  had  any — was  that  we  had 
better  give  up  reading  the  Bible),  and  in  the  text  of 
which  I  found  the  word  '  tribal '  repeated  about  ten  times 
in  every  page.  Now,  if  'tribe'  makes  'tribal,'  tube 
must  make  tubal,  cube,  cubal,  and  gibe,  gibal ;  and  I 
suppose  we  shall  next  hear  of  tubal  music,  cubal  min- 
erals, and  gibal  conversation  !  And  observe  how  all  this 
bad  English  leads  instantly  to  blunder  in  thought,  pro- 
longed indefinitely.  The  Jewish  Tribes  are  not  separate 
races,  but  the  descendants  of  brothers.  The  Koman 
Tribes,  political  divisions ;  essentially  Trine :  and  the 
whole  force  of  the  word  Tribune  vanishes,  as  soon  as  the 
ear  is  wrung  into  acceptance  of  his  lazy  innovation  by 
the  modern  writer.  Similarly,  in  the  last  elements  of 
mineralogy  I  took  up,  the  first  order  of  crystals  was 
called  '  tesseral ' ;  the  writer  being  much  too  fine  to  call 
them  4four-al,'  and  too  much  bent  on  distinguishing 
himself  from  all  previous  writers  to  call  them  cubic. 

10.  What  simple  schoolchildren,  and  sensible  school- 
masters, are  to  do  in  this  atmosphere  of  Egyptian  marsh, 
which  rains  fools  upon  them  like  frogs,  I  can  no  more 
with  any  hope  or  patience  conceive ; — but  this  finally  I 
repeat,  concerning  my  own  books,  that  they  are  written 


56  PROSERPINA. 

in  honest  English,  of  good  Johnsonian  lineage,  touched 
here  and  there  with  colour  of  a  little  finer  or  Elizabethan 
quality :  and  that  the  things  they  tell  you  are  compre- 
hensible by  any  moderately  industrious  and  intelligent 
person ;  and  accurate,  to  a  degree  which  the  accepted 
methods  of  modern  science  cannot,  in  my  own  particular 
fields,  approach. 

11.  Of  which  accuracy,  the  reader  may  observe  for 
immediate  instance,  my  extrication  for  him,  from  among 
the  uvularias,  of  these  five  species  of  the  Butterwort; 
which,  being  all  that  need  be  distinctly  named  and  re- 
membered, do  need  to  be  first  carefully  distinguished, 
and  then  remembered  in  their  companionship.  So  alike 
are  they,  that  Gerarde  makes  no  distinction  among  them  ; 
but  masses  them  under  the  general  type  of  the  frequent 
English  one,  described  as  the  second  kind  of  his  promis- 
cuous group  of  c  Sanicle,'  "  which  Clusius  calleth  Pingui- 
cula ;  not  before  his  time  remembered,  hath  sundry  small 
thick  leaves,  fat  and  full  of  juice,  being  broad  towards 
the  root  and  sharp  towards  the  point,  of  a  faint  green 
colour,  and  bitter  in  taste ;  out  of  the  middest  whereof 
sprouteth  or  shooteth  up  a  naked  slender  stalke  nine 
inches  long,  every  stalke  bearing  one  flower  and  no  more, 
sometimes  white,  and  sometimes  of  a  bluish  purple  colour, 
fashioned  like  unto  the  common  Monkshoods"  (he  means 
Larkspurs)  "  called  Consolida  Regalis,  having  the  like  spur 
or  Lark's  heel  attached  thereto."  Then  after  describ- 
ing a  third  kind  of  Sanicle — (Cortusa  Mathioli,  a  large- 


II.    PINGUICULA.  5? 

leaved  Alpine  Primula,)  be  goes  on  :  "These  plants  are 
strangers  in  England  ;  their  natural  country  is  the  alpish 
mountains  of  Helvetia.  They  grow  in  my  garden,  where 
they  nourish  exceedingly,  except  Butterwoort,  which 
growethin  our  English  squally  wet  grounds," — ('  Squally,' 
I  believe,  here,  from  squalid  us,  though  Johnson  does  not 
give  this  sense  ;  but  one  of  his  quotations  from  Ben  Jon- 
son  touches  it  nearly :  "  Take  heed  that  their  new  flow- 
ers and  sweetness  do  not  as  much  corrupt  as  the  others' 
dryness  and  squalor," — and  note  farther  that  the  word 
'  squal,'  in  the  sense  of  gust,  is  not  pure  English,  but  the 
Arabic  i  Chuaul '  with  an  s  prefixed  : — the  English  word, 
a  form  of  '  squeal,'  meaning  a  child's  cry,  from  Gothic 
'Squsela'  and  Icelandic  'squilla,'  would  scarcely  have 
been  made  an  adjective  by  Gerarde), — "  and  will  not  yield 
to  any  culturing  or  transplanting :  it  groweth  especially 
in  a  field  called  Cragge  Close,  and  at  Crosbie  Kavens- 
waithe,  in  Westmerland ;  (West-m^r^-land  you  observe, 
not  mor)  upon  Ingleborough  Fells,  twelve  miles  from 
Lancaster,  and  by  Harwoode  in  the  same  county  near  to 
Blackburn  :  ten  miles  from  Preston,  in  Anderness,  upon 
the  bogs  and  niarish  ground,  and  in  the  boggie  meadows 
about  Bishop's-Hatfield,  and  also  in  the  fens  in  the  way 
to  Wittles  Meare"  (Eoger  Wildrake's  Squattlesea  Mere  ?) 
"from  Fendon,  in  Huntingdonshire."  Where  doubt- 
less Cromwell  ploughed  it  up,  in  his  young  days,  piti- 
lessly ;  and  in  nowise  pausing,  as  Burns  beside  his  fallen 
daisy. 


58  PROSERPINA. 

12.  Finally,  however,  I  believe  we  may  accept  its  Eng- 
lish name  of  '  Butter  wort '  as  true  Yorkshire,  the  more 
enigmatic  form  of  c  Pigwilly '  preserving  the  tradition  of 
the  flowers  once  abounding,  with  softened  Latin  name, 
in  Pigwilly  bottom,  close  to  Force  bridge,  by  Kendal. 
Gerarde  draws  the  English  variety  as  "  Pinguicula  sive 
Sanicuia  Eboracensis, — Butterwoort,  or  Yorkshire  Sani- 
cle;"  and  he  adds:  "The  husbandmen's  wives  of  York- 
shire do  use  to  anoint  the  dugs  of  their  kine  with  the  fat 
and  oilous  juice  of  the  herb  Butterwort  when  they  be 
bitten  of  any   venomous  worm,  or  chapped,  rifted  and 
hurt  by  any  other  means." 

13.  In  Lapland  it  is  put  to  much  more  certain  use ; 
"it  is  called  Tiitgrass,  and  the  leaves  are  used  by  the  in- 
habitants to  make  their  '  tat  miolk,'  a  preparation  of  milk 
in  common  use  among  them.     Some  fresh  leaves  are  laid 
upon  a  filter,  and  milk,  yet  warm  from  the  reindeer,  is 
poured  over  them.     After  passing  quickly  through  the 
filter,  this  is  allowed  to  rest  for  one  or  two  days  until  it 
becomes  ascescent,*  when  it  is  found  not  to  have  sepa- 
rated from  the  whey,  and  yet  to   have   attained  much 
greater  tenacity  and  consistence  than  it  would  have  done 
otherwise.     The  Laplanders  and  Swedes  are  said  to  be 
extremely  fond  of  this  milk,  which  when  once  made,  it 
is  not  necessary  to  renew  the  use  of.  the  leaves,  for  we  are 
told  that  a  spoonful  of  it  will  turn  another  quantity  of 

*  Lat.  acesco,  to  turn  sour. 


II.    PINGUICULA.  59 

warm  milk,  and  make  it  like  the  first."  *  (Baxter,  vol, 
iii.,  Xo.  209.) 

14.  In  the  same  page,  I  find  quoted  Dr.  Johnston's 
observation  that  "when  specimens  of  this  plant  were 
somewhat  rudely  pulled  up,  the  flower-stalk,  previously 
erect,  almost  immediately  began  to  bend  itself  backwards, 
and  formed  a  more  or  less  perfect  segment  of  a  circle; 
and  so  also,  if  a  specimen  is  placed  in  the  Botanic  box, 
you  will  in  a  short  time  find  that  the  leaves  have  curled 
themselves  backwards,  and  now  conceal  the  root  by  their 
revolution." 

I  have  no  doubt  that  this  elastic  and  wiry  action  is 
partly  connected  with  the  plant's  more  or  less  predatory 
or  fly-trap  character,  in  which  these  curiously  degraded 
plants  are  associated  with  Drosera.  I  separate  them 
therefore  entirely  from  the  Bladderworts,  and  hold  them 
to  be  a  link  between  the  Violets  and  the  Droseracese, 

*  Withering  quotes  this  as  from  Linnaeus,  and  adds  on  authority 
of  a  Mr.  Hawkes,  "  This  did  not  succeed  when  tried  with  cows'  milk." 
He  also  gives  as  another  name,  Yorkshire  Sanicle ;  and  says  it  is 
called  earning  grass  in  Scotland.  Linnasus  says  the  juice  will  curdle 
reindeer's  milk.  The  name  for  rennet  is  earning,  in  Lincolnshire. 
Withering  also  gives  this  note  :  "  Pinguis,  fat,  from  its  effect  in  CON- 
GEALING milk." — (A.)  Withering  of  course  wrong  :  the  name  comes, 
be  the  reader  finally  assured,  from  the  fatness  of  the  green  leaf,  quite 
peculiar  among  wild  plants,  and  fastened  down  for  us  in  the  French 
word  '  Grassette.'  I  have  found  the  flowers  also  difficult  to  dry,  in  the 
benighted  early  times  when  I  used  to  think  a  dried  plant  useful !  See 
closing  paragraphs  of  the  4th  chapter. — R. 


60  PROSERPINA. 

placing  them,  however,  with  the  Cytherides,  as  a  sub- 
family, for  their  beautiful  colour,  and  because  they  are 
indeed  a  grace  and  delight  in  ground  which,  but  for 
them,  would  be  painfully  and  rudely  desolate. 


CHAPTER  III. 

VERONICA. 

1.  "  THE  Corolla  of  the  Foxglove,"  says  Dr.  Lindley, 
beginning  his  account  of  the  tribe  at  page  195  of  the 
first  volume  of  his  4  Ladies'  Botany,'  "  is  a  large  inflated 
body  (!),  with  its  throat  spotted  with  rich  purple,  and  its 
border  divided  obliquely  into  five  very  short  lobes,  of 
which  the  two  upper  are  the  smaller ;  its  four  stamens 
are  of  unequal  length,  and  its  style  is  divided  into  two 
lobes  at  the  upper  end.     A  number  of  long  hairs  cover 
the  ovary,  which  contains  two  cells  and  a  great  quantity 
of  ovules. 

"  This"  (sc.  information)  "  will  show  you  what  is  the 
usual  character  of  the  Foxglove  tribe ;  and  you  will  find 
that  all  the  other  genera  referred  to  it  in  books  agree  with 
it  essentially,  although  they  differ  in  subordinate  points. 
It  is  chiefly  (A)  in  the  form  of  the  corolla,  (B)  in  the 
number  of  the  stamens,  (C)  in  the  consistence  of  the  rind 
of  the  fruit,  (D)  in  its  form,  (E)  in  the  number  of  the 
seeds  it  contains,  and  (F)  in  the  manner  in  which  the 
sepals  are  combined,  that  these  differences  consist." 

2.  The  enumerative  letters  are  of  my  insertion — other- 
wise the  above  sentence  is,  word  for  word,  Dr.  Lindley 's, 
—and  it  seems  to  me  an  interesting  and  memorable  one 


62  PROSERPINA. 

in  tlie  history  of  modern  Botanical  science.  For  it  ap- 
pears from  the  tenor  of  it,  that  in  a  scientific  "botanist's 
mind,  six  particulars,  at  least,  in  the  character  of  a  plant, 
are  merely  '  subordinate  points,' — namely, 

1.  (F)  The  combination  of  its  calyx, 

2.  (A)  The  shape  of  its  corolla, 

3.  (B)  The  number  of  its  stamens, 

4.  (D)  The  form  of  its  fruit, 

5.  (C)  The  consistence  of  its  shell, — and 

6.  (E)  The  number  of  seeds  in  it. 

Abstracting,  then,  from  the  primary  description,  all  the 
six  inessential  points,  I  find  the  three  essential  ones  left 
are,  that  the  style  is  divided  into  two  lobes  at  the  upper 
end,  that  a  number  of  glandular  hairs  cover  the  ovary, 
and  that  this  latter  contains  two  cells. 

3.  None  of  which  particulars  concern  any  reasonable 
mortal,  looking  at  a  Foxglove,  in  the  smallest  degree. 
Whether  hairs  which  he  can't  see  are  glandular  or  bristly, 
—whether  the  green  knobs,  which  are  left  when  the  pur- 
ple bells  are  gone,  are  divided  into  two  lobes  or  two  hun- 
dred,— and  whether  the  style  is  split,  like  a  snake's  tongue, 
into  two  lobes,  or  like  a  rogue's,  into  any  number — are 
merely  matters  of  vulgar  curiosity,  which  he  needs  a  mi- 
croscope to  discover,  and  will  lose  a  day  of  his  life  in 
discovering.  But  if  any  pretty  young  Proserpina,  es- 
caped from  the  Plutonic  durance  of  London,  and  carried 
by  the  tubular  process,  which  replaces  Charon's  boat,  over 


III.    VERONICA.  63 

the  Lime  at  Lancaster,  cares  to  come  and  walk  on  the 
Coniston  hills  in  a  summer  morning,  when  the  eyebright 
is  out  on  the  high  fields,  she  may  gather,  with  a  little 
help  from  Brantwood  garden,  a  bouquet  of  the  entire 
Foxglove  tribe  in  flower,  as  it  is  at  present  defined,  and 
may  see  what  they  are  like,  altogether. 

4.  She  shall  gather  :  first,  the  Euphrasy,  which  makes 
the  turf  on  the  brow  of  the  hill  glitter  as  if  with  new- 
fallen  manna  ;  then,  from  one  of  the  blue  clusters  on  the 
top  of  the  garden  wall,  the  common  bright  blue  Speed- 
well ;  and,  from  the  garden  bed  beneath,  a  dark  blue 
spire  of  Veronica  spicata ;  then,  at  the  nearest  opening 
into  the  wood,  a  little  foxglove  in  its  first  delight  of 
shaking  out  its  bells  ;  then — what  next  does  the  Doctor 

O  * 

say? — a  snapdragon?  we  must  go  back  into  the  garden 
for  that — here  is  a  goodly  crimson  one,  but  what  the 
little  speedwell  will  think  of  him  for  a  relative  I  can't 
think! — a  mullein? — that  we  must  do  without  for  the 
moment ;  a  monkey  flower  ? — that  we  will  do  without, 
altogether  ;  a  lady's  slipper  ? — say  rather  a  goblin's  with 
the  gout !  but,  such  as  the  flower-cobbler  has  made  it, 
here  is  one  of  the  kind  that  people  praise,  out  of  the 
greenhouse, — and  yet  a  figwort  we  must  have,  too ; 
which  I  see  on  referring  to  London,  may  be  balm-leaved, 
hemp-leaved,  tansy -leaved,  nettle-leaved,  wing-leaved, 
heart-leaved,  ear-leaved,  spear-leaved,  or  lyre-leaved.  I 
think  I  can  find  a  balm-leaved  one,  though  I  don't  know 
what  to  make  of  it  when  I've  got  it,  but  it's  called  a 


64  PKOSERPIXA. 

'Scorodonia'  in  Sowerbj,  and  something  very  ugly  be- 
sides;— I'll  put  a  bit  of  Teucrium  Scorodonia  in,  to 
finish  :  and  now — how  will  my  young  Proserpina  arrange 
her  bouquet,  and  rank  the  fanrily  relations  to  their  con- 
tentment ? 

5.  She  has  only  one  kind  of  flowers-  in  her  hand,  as 
botanical   classification  stands   at   present ;  and  whether 
the  system  be  more  rational,  or  in  any  human  sense  more 
scientific,  which  puts  calceolaria  and  speedwejl  together, 
— and  foxglove  and   euphrasy  ;  and  runs  them   on  one 
side  into  the  mints,  and  on  the   other  into  the  night- 
shades ; — naming  them,  meanwhile,  some  from  diseases, 
some  from  vermin,  some  from  blockheads,  and  the  rest 
anyhow:  —  or   the  method   I   am   pleading   for,  which 
teaches  us,  watchful  of  their  seasonable  return  and  chosen 
abiding  places,  to  associate  in  our  memory  the  flowers 
which  truly  resemble,  or  fondly  companion,  or,  in  time 
kept  by  the  signs  of  Heaven,  succeed,  each  other ;  and 
to  name  them   in  some   historical  connection  with  the 
loveliest  fancies  and  most  helpful  faiths  of  the  ancestral 
world — Proserpina  be  judge ;  with  every  maid  that  sets 
flowers  on  brow  or  breast — from  Thule  to  Sicily. 

6.  We  will  unbind  our  bouquet,  then,  and  putting  all 
the  rest  of  its  flowers  aside,  examine  the  range  and  nature 
of  the  little  blue  cluster  only. 

And  first — we  have  to  note  of  it,  that  the  plan  of  the 
blossom  in  all  the  kinds  is  thtf  same  ;  an  irregular  quatre- 
foil :  and  irregular  quatrefoils  are  of  extreme  rarity  in 


III.    VERONICA.  G5 

flower  form.  I  don't  myself  know  one,  except  the  Veron- 
ica. The  cruciform  vegetables — the  heaths,  the  olives, 
the  lilacs,  the  little  Tormentillas,  and  the  poppies,  are  all 
perfectly  symmetrical.  Two  of  the  petals,  indeed,  as  a 
rule,  are  different  from  the  other  two,  except  in  the 
heaths ;  and  thus  a  distinctly  crosslet  form  obtained,  but 
always  an  equally  balanced  one :  while  in  the  Yeronica, 
as  in  the  Violet,  the  blossom  always  refers  itself  to  a 
supposed  place  on  the  stalk  with  respect  to  the  ground ; 
and  the  upper  petal  is  always  the  largest. 

The  supposed  place  is  often  very  suppositious  indeed 
—for  clusters  of  the  common  veronicas,  if  luxuriant, 
throw  their  blossoms  about  anywhere.  But  the  idea  of 
an  upper  and  lower  petal  is  always  kept  in  the  flower's 
little  mind. 

7.  In   the  second  place,  it  is  a  quite   open  and  flat 
quatrefoil — so  separating  itself  from  the  belled  quadra- 
ture of  the  heath,  and  the  tubed  and  primrose-like  quad- 
rature of  the  cruciferse ;  and,  both  as  a  quatrefoil,  and  as 
an  open  one,  it  is  separated  from  the  foxgloves  and  snap- 
dragons, which  are  neither  quatref  oils,  nor  open ;  but  are 
cinqfoils  shut  up ! 

8.  In  the  third  place,  open  and  flat  though  the  flower 
be,  it  is  monopetalous ;  all  the  four  arms  of  the  cross 
strictly  becoming  one  in  the  centre ;  so  that,  though  the 
blue  foils  look  no  less  sharply  separate  than  those  of  a 
buttercup  or  a  cistus ;  and  are  so  delicate  that  one  ex- 
pects them  to  fall  from  their  stalk  if  we  breathe  too 


66  PROSERPINA. 

near, — do  but  lay  hold  of  one, — and,  at  the  touch,  the 
entire  blossom  is  lifted  from  its  stalk,  and  may  be  laid, 
in  perfect  shape,  on  our  paper  before  us,  as  easily  as  if 
it  had  been  a  nicely  made-up  blue  bonnet,  lifted  off  its 
stand  by  the  milliner. 

I  pause  here,  to  consider  a  little ;  because  I  find  myself 
mixing  up  two  characteristics  which  have  nothing  neces- 
sary in  their  relation  ; — namely,  the  unity  of  the  blossom, 
and  its  coming  easily  off  the  stalk.  The  separate  petals  of 
the  cistus  and  cherry  fall  as  easily  as  the  foxglove  drops 
its  bells; — on  the  other  hand,  there  are  monopetalous 
things  that  don't  drop,  but  hold  on  like  the  convoluta,* 
and  make  the  rest  of  the  tree  sad  for  their  dying.  I  do 
not  see  my  way  to  any  systematic  noting  of  decadent  or 
persistent  corolla ;  but,  in  passing,  we  may  thank  the 
veronica  for  never  allowing  us  to  see  how  it  fades,  f  and 
being  always  cheerful  and  lovely,  while  it  is  with  us. 

9.  And  for  a  farther  specialty,  I  think  we  should  take 
note  of  the  purity  and  simplicity  of  its  floral  blue,  not 


*  I  find  much  more  difficulty,  myself,  being  old,  in  using  my  al- 
tered names  for  species  than  my  young  scholars  will.  In  watching 
the  bells  of  the  purple  bindweed  fade  at  evening,  let  them  learn  the 
fourth  verse  of  the  prayer  of  Hezekiah,  as  it  is  in  the  Vulgate — 
"  Genera tio  mea  ablata  est,  et  convoluta  est  a  me,  sicut  tabernaculum 
pastoiis,"— and  they  will  not  forget  the  name  of  the  fast-fading — ever 
renewed — "  belle  (Tun  jour." 

f  "  It  is  Miss  Cobbe,  I  think,  who  says  '  all  wild  flowers  know  how 
to  die  gracefully.' " — A. 


UI,    YEROXICA.  67 

sprinkling  itself  with  unwholesome  sugar  like  a  larkspur, 
nor  varying  into  coppery  or  turquoise-like  hue  as  the 
forget-me-not;  but  keeping  itself  as  modest  as  a  blue 
print,  pale,  in  the  most  frequent  kinds  ;  but  pure  exceed- 
ingly ;  and  rejoicing  in  fellowship  with  the  grey  of  its 
native  rocks.  The  palest  of  all  I  think  it  will  be  well 
to  remember  as  Veronica  Clara,  the  "Poor  Clare"  of 
Veronicas.  I  find  this  note  on  it  in  my  diary,— 

4  The  flower  of  an  exquisite  grey- white,  like  lichen,  or 
shaded  hoar-frost,  or  dead  silver;  making  the  long- 
weathered  stones  it  grew  upon  perfect  with  a  finished 
modesty  of  paleness,  as  if  the  flower  could  be  blue,  and 
would  not,  for  their  sake.  Laying  its  fine  small  leaves 
along  in  embroidery,  like  Anagallis  tenella, —  indescrib- 
able in  the  tender  feebleness  of  it — afterwards  as  it  grew, 
dropping  the  little  blossoms  from  the  base  of  the  spire, 
before  the  buds  at  the  top  had  blown.  Gathered,  it  was 
happy  beside  me,  with  a  little  water  under  a  stone,  and 
put  out  one  pale  blossom  after  another,  day  by  day.' 

10.  Lastly,  and  for  a  high  worthiness,  in  my  estimate, 
note  that  it  is  wild,  of  the  wildest,  and  proud  in  pure 
descent  of  race ;  submitting  itself  to  no  follies  of  the 
cur-breeding   florist.     Its    species,  though   many   resem- 
bling each  other,  are  severally  constant  in  aspect.,  and 
easily  recognizable;  and  I  have  never  seen  it  provoked 
to  glare  into  any  gigantic  impudence  at  a  flower  show. 
Fortunately,  perhaps,  it  is  scentless,  and  so  despised. 

11.  Before  I  attempt  arranging  its  families,  we  must 


68  PROSERPINA. 

note  that  while  the  corolla  itself  is  one  of  the  most  con- 
stant in  form,  and  so  distinct  from  all  other  blossoms 
that  it  may  be  always  known  at  a  glance ;  the  leaves  and 
habit  of  growth  vary  so  greatly  in  families  of  different 
climates,  and  those  born  for  special  situations,  moist  or 
dry,  and  the  like,  that  it  is  quite  impossible  to  character- 
ize Veronic,  or  Veronique,  vegetation  in  general  terms. 
One  can  say,  comfortably,  of  a  strawberry,  that  it  is  a 
creeper,  without  expecting  at  the  next  moment  to  see  a 
steeple  of  strawberry  blossoms  rise  to  contradict  us ; — we 
can  venture  to  say  of  a  foxglove  that  it  grows  in  a  spire, 
without  any  danger  of  finding,  farther  on,  a  carpet  of 
prostrate  and  entangling  digitalis;  and  we  may  pro- 
nounce of  a  buttercup  that  it  grows  mostly  in  meadows, 
without  fear  of  finding  ourselves,  at  the  edge  of  the  next 
thicket,  under  the  shadow  of  a  buttercup-bush  growing 
into  valuable  timber.  But  the  Veronica  reclines  with 
the  lowly,*  upon  occasion,  arid  aspires,  with  the  proud ; 
is  here  the  pleased  companion  of  the  ground-ivies,  and 
there  the  unrebuked  rival  of  the  larkspurs  :  on  the  rocks 
of  Coniston  it  effaces  itself  almost  into  the  film  of  a 
lichen  ;  it  pierces  the  snows  of  Iceland  with  the  gentian  : 
and  in  the  Falkland  Islands  is  a  white-blossomed  ever- 
green, of  which  botanists  are  in  dispute  whether  it  be 
Veronica  or  Olive. 


*  See  distinction  betwfeon  recumbent  and  rampant  herbs,  below, 
under  '  Veronica  Agrestis,'  p.  72. 


III.    VERONICA.  69 

12.  Of  these  many  and  various  forms,  I  find  the  man- 
ners and  customs  alike  inconstant ;  and  this  of  especially 
singular  in  them — that  the  Alpine  and  northern  species 
bloom  hardily  in  contest  with  the  retiring  snows,  while 
with  us  they  wait  till  the  spring  is  past,  and  offer  them- 
selves to  us  only  in  consolation  for  the  vanished  violet 
and   primrose.     As   we  farther  examine  the  ways   of 
plants,  I  suppose  we  shall  find  some  that  determine  upon 
a  fixed  season,  and  will  bloom  methodically  in  June  or 
July,  whether  in  Abyssinia  or  Greenland;  and  others, 
like  the  violet  and  crocus,  which  are  flowers  of  the  spring, 
at  whatever  time  of  the  favouring  or  frowning  year  the 
spring   returns   to   their   country.     I  suppose  also  that 
botanists  and  gardeners  know  all  these  matters  thorough- 
ly :  but  they  don't  put  them  into  their  books,  and  the 
clear  notions  of  them  only  come  to  me  now,  as  I  think 
and  watch. 

13.  Broadly,  however,  the  families  of  the  Veronica 
fall  into  three  main  divisions, — those  which  have  round 
leaves  lobed  at  the  edge,  like  ground  ivy ;  those  which 
have  small  thyme-like  leaves ;  and  those  which  have  long 
leaves  like  a  foxglove's,  only  smaller — never  more  than 
two  or  two  and  a  half  inches  long.    I  therefore  take  them 
in  these  connections,  though  without  any  bar  between 
the  groups ;  only  separating  the  Regina  from  the  other 
thyme-leaved  ones,  to  give  her  due  precedence ;  and  the 
rest  will  then  arrange  themselves  into  twenty  families, 
easily  distinguishable  and  memorable. 


70 


PROSERPINA. 


I  have  chosen  for  Veronica  Kegina,  the  brave  Ice- 
landic one,  which  pierces  the  snow  in  first  spring,  with 
lovely  small  shoots  of  perfectly  set  leaves,  no  larger  than 


FIG.  IV. 


a  grain  of  wheat ;  the  flowers  in  a  lifted  cluster  of  five  or 
six  together,  not  crowded,  yet  not  loose ;  large,  for  ve- 
ronica— about  the  size  of  a  silver  penny,  or  say  half  an 
inch  across — deep  blue,  with  ruby  centre. 


III.    VERONICA.  71 

My  woodcut,  Fig.  4,  is  outlined  *  from  the  beautiful 
engraving  D.  342,f — there  called  '  fruticulosa,'  from  the 
number  of  the  young  shoots 

14.  Beneath  the  Kegina,  come  the  twenty  easily  dis- 
tinguished families,  namely : — 

1.  Chamaedrys.  '  Ground-oak.'  I  cannot  tell  why  so 
called — its  small  and  rounded  leaves  having  nothing  like 
oak  leaves  about  them,  except  the  serration,  which  is 
common  to  half,  at  least,  of  all  leaves  that  grow.  But 


*  'Abstracted'  rather,  I  should  have  said,  and  with  perfect  skill, 
by  Mr.  Collingwood  (the  joint  translator  of  Xenophon's  Economics 
for  the  '  Bibliotheca  Pastorum ').  So  also  the  next  following  cut, 
Fig.  5. 

f  Of  the  references,  henceforward  necessary  to  the  books  I  have 
used  as  authorities,  the  reader  will  please  note  the  following  abbrevi- 
ations : — 

C.  Curtis's  Magazine  of  Botany. 

D.  Flora  Danica. 

F.  Figuier. 

G.  Sibthorpe's  Flora  Graca. 

L.  Linna3us.    Systema  Naturae. 

L.  S.  Linnaeus's  Flora  Suecica.    But  till  we  are  quite  used  to  the 

other  letters,  I  print  this  reference  in  words. 
L.  N.  William  Curtis 's  Flora  Londinensis.    Of  the  exquisite  plates 

engraved  for  this  book  by  James  Sowerby,  note  is  taken  in 

the  close  of  next  chapter. 
O.  Sowerby's  English  Wild  Flowers  ;  the  old  edition  in  thirty-two 

thin  volumes — far  the  best. 
S.  Sowerby's  English  Wild  Flowers ;  the  modern  edition  in  ten 

volumes. 


72  PROSERPINA. 

the  idea  is  all  over  Europe,  apparently.  Fr.  l  petit 
chene : '  German  and  English  '  Germander,'  a  merely 
corrupt  form  of  Chamsedrys. 

The  representative  English  veronica  "Germander 
Speedwell" — very  prettily  drawn  in  S.  986  ;  too  tall  and 
weed-like  in  D.  448. 

2.  Hederifolia.     Ivy-leaved :  but  more  properly,  cym- 
balaria-leaved.     It   is   the   English   field   representative, 
though  blue-flowered,  of  the  Byzantine  white  veronica, 
Y.  Cymbalaria,  very  beautifully  drawn  in  G.  9.     Hederi- 
folia well  in  D.  428. 

3.  Agrestis.      Fr.   'Rustique.'      "We   ought   however 
clearly  to  understand  whether  '  agrestis,'  used  by  English 
botanists,  is  meant  to  imply  a  literally  field  flower,,  or 
only  a  'rustic'  one,  which  might  as  properly  grow  in  a 
wood.     I  shall  always  myself  use  '  agrestis '  in  the  literal 
sense,  and  'rustica'  for  'rustique.'     I  see  no  reason,  in 
the  present  case,  for  separating  the  Polite  from  the  Rus- 
tic flower :  the  agrestis,  D.  449  and  S.  971,  seems  to  me 
not  more  meekly  recumbent,  nor  more  frankly  culture- 
less,  than  the  so-called  Polita,  S.  972  :  there  seems  also 
no  French  acknowledgment  of  its  politeness,  and   the 
Greek  family,  G.  8,  seem  the  rudest  and  wildest  of  all. 

Quite  afield  flower  it  is,  I  believe,  lying  always  low  on 
the  ground  ;  recumbent,  but  not  creeping.  Note  this  dif- 
ference :  no  fastening  roots  are  thrown  out  by  the  repos- 
ing stems  of  this  Veronica ;  a  creeping  or  accurately  '  ram- 
pant' plant  roots  itself  in  advancing.  Conf.  Nos,  5,  6. 


III.    VERONICA.  73 

4.  Arvensis.     We  have  yet  to  note  a  still  finer  dis- 
tinction  in  epithet.     '  Agrestis '  will  properly  mean    a 
flower  of  the  open  ground — yet  not  caring  whether  the 
piece  of  earth  be  cultivated  or  not,  so  long  as  it  is  under 
clear  sky.     But  when  agri-culture  has  turned  the  unfruit- 
ful acres  into  c  arva  beata,'— if  then  the  plant  thrust  it- 
self between  the  furrows  of  the  plough,  it  is  properly 
called  '  Arvensis.' 

I  don't  quite  see  my  way  to  the  same  distinction  in 
English, — perhaps  I  may  get  into  the  habit,  as  time  goes 
on,  of  calling  the  Arvenses  consistently  furrow-flowers, 
and  the  Agrestes  field-flowers.  Furrow- veronica  is  a  tire- 
somely  long  name,  but  must  do  for  the  present,  as  the 
best  interpretation  of  its  Latin  character,  "  vulgatissima 
in  cultis  et  arvis."  D.  515.  The  blossom  itself  is  exquis- 
itely delicate ;  and  we  may  be  thankful,  both  here  and 
in  Denmark,  for  such  a  lovely  '  vulgate.' 

5.  Montana.     D.  1201.     The  first  really  creeping  plant 
we  have  had  to  notice.     It  throws  out  roots  from  the  re- 
cumbent stems.     Otherwise  like  agrestis,  it  has  leaves 
like   ground-ivy.      Called   a   wood   species   in   the  text 
ofD. 

6.  Persica.     An  eastern  form,  but  now  perfectly  natu- 
ralized  here — D.  1982 ;  S.  973.     The  flowers  very  large, 
and   extremely  beautiful,  but  only  one  springing  from 
each  leaf-axil. 

Leaves  and  stem  like  Montana ;  and  also  creeping  with 
new  roots  at  intervals. 


74  PROSERPINA. 

7.  Triphylla,  (not  triphylle>s, — see  Flora  Suecica,  22). 
Meaning  trifid-leaved  ;  but  the  leaf  is  really  divided  into 
live  lobes,  not  three — see  S.  974,  and  G.  10.  The  palmate 
form  of  the  leaf  seems  a  mere  caprice,  and  indicates  no 
transitional  form  in  the  plant :  it  may  be  accepted  as  only 
a  momentary  compliment  of  mimicry  to  the  geraniums. 
The  Siberian  variety,  '  multifida,'  C.  1679,  divides  itself 
almost  as  the  submerged^  leaves  of  the  water-ranunculus. 

The  triphylla  itself  is  widely  diffused,  growing  alike 
on  the  sandy  fields  of  Kent,  and  of  Troy.  In  I).  627  is 
given  an  extremely  delicate  and  minute  northern  type, 
the  flowers  springing  as  in  Persica,  one  from  each  leaf- 
axil,  and  at  distant  intervals. 

8.  Officinalis.     D.  248,  S.  294.     Fr.   'Yeronique  offi- 
cinale ' ;    (Germ.   Gebrauchlicher  Ehrenpreis,)  our  com- 
monest English  and  Welsh  speedwell ;  richest  in  cluster 
and  frankest  in   roadside  growth,  whether  on  bank  or 
rock ;  but  assuredly  liking  either  a  bank  or  a  rock,  an4 
the  top  of  a  wall  better  than  the  shelter  of  one.     Un- 
countable''myriads,'  I  am  tempted  to  write,  but,  cau- 
tiously  and   literally,  'hundreds'    of   blossoms — if   one 
could  count, — ranging  certainly  towards  the  thousand  in 
some  groups,  all  bright  at  once,  make  our  Westmoreland 
lanes  look  as  if  they  were  decked  for  weddings,  in  early 
summer.     In   the  Danish   Flora  it  is  drawn   small  and 
poor ;  its  southern  type  being  the  true  one  :  but  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  explain  the  difference  between  the  look  of  a 
flower  which  really  suffers,  as  in  this  instance,  by  a  colder 


III.    VERONICA.  75 

climate,  and  becomes  mean  and  weak,  as  well  as  dwarfed  ; 
and  one  which  is  braced  and  brightened  by  the  cold, 
though  diminished,  as  if  under  the  charge  and  charm  of 
an  affectionate  fairy,  and  becomes  a  joyfully  patriotic  in- 
heritor of  wilder  scenes  and  skies.  Medicinal,  to  soul 
and  body  alike,  this  gracious  and  domestic  flower;  though 
astringent  and  bitter  in  the  juice.  It  is  the  Welsh  deeply 
honoured  '  Fluellen.' — See  final  note  on  the  myth  of 
Veronica,  see  §  18. 

9.  Thymifolia.     Thyme-leaved,  G.  6.     Of  course  the 
longest  possible  word — serpyllifolia — is  u&ed  in  S.  978. 
It  is  a  high  mountain  plant,  growing  on  the  top  of  Crete 
as  the  snow  retires  ;  and  the  Veronica  minor  of  Gerarde ; 
"the  roote  is  small  and  threddie,  taking  hold  of  the  up- 
per surface  of  the  earth,  where  it  spreadeth."     So  also 
it  is  drawn  as  a  creeper  in  F.  492,  where  the  flower  ap- 
pears to  be  oppressed  and  concealed  by  the  leafage. 

10.  Minuta,  called  'hirsuta'  in  S.  985:  an  ugly  char- 
acteristic to  name  the  lovely  little  thing  by.     The  dis- 
tinct blue  lines  in  the  petals  might  perhaps  justify  i  picta' 
or  '  lineata,'  rather  than  an  epithet  of  size ;  but  I  suppose 
it  is  Gerarde's  Minima,  and  so  leave  it,  more  safely  named 
as  <  minute '  than  '  least.'     For  I  think  the  next  variety 
may  dispute  the  leastness. 

11.  Verna.     D.    252.     Mountains,   in   dry   places   in 
earlv    spring.     Upright,   and   confused    in    the   leafage, 
which  is  sharp-pointed  and  close  set,  much  hiding  the 
blossom,  but  of  extreme  elegance,  fit  for  a  sacred  fore- 


76  PROSERPINA. 

ground  ;  as  any  gentle  student  will  feel,  who  copies  this 

outline  from  the  Flora  Danica,  Fig.  5. 

12.  Peregrina.  Another  extremely  small  variety, 
nearly  pink  in  colour,  passing  in- 
to bluish  lilac  and  white.  Amer- 
ican ;  but  called,  I  do  not  see 
why,  '  Veronique  voyageusej  by 
the  French,  and  Fremder  Ehren- 
preis  in  Germany.  Given  as  a 
frequent  English  weed  in  S.  927. 

13.  Alpina.     Veronique   des 
Alpes.  Gebirgs  Ehrenpreis.  Still 
minute ;    its     scarcely    distinct 
flowers    forming   a   close    head 
among  the  leaves;  round  petal- 
led  in  D.  16,  but  sharp,  as  usual, 
in    S.    980.      On   the   Norway 
Alps  in    grassy  places ;   and   in 
Scotland  by  the  side  of  moun- 
tain rills;    but   rare.     On   Ben 
Nevis  and  Lachin  y  Gair  (S.) 

14.  Scutellata.       From     the 
shield-like  shape  of  its  seed-ves- 
sels.     Veronique    a    Ecusson ; 

FlG- V"  Schildf ruchtiger        Ehrenpreis. 

But  the  seed-vessels  are  more  heart  shape  than  shield. 
Marsh  Speedwell.  S.  988,  D.  209,— in  the  one  pink, 
in  the  other  blue ;  but  again  in  D.  .1561,  pink. 


III.    VERONICA.  77 

"In  flooded  meadows,  common."  (D.)  A  spoiled 
and  scattered  form ;  the  seeds  too  conspicuous,  but  the 
flowers  very  delicate,  hence  '  Gratiola  minima'  in  Gesuer. 
The  confused  ramification  of  the  clusters  worth  noting, 
in  relation  to  the  equally  straggling  fibres  of  root. 

15.  Spicata.     S.  982  :  very  prettily  done,  representing 
the  inside  of  the  flower  as  deep  blue,  the  outside  pale. 
The  top  of  the  spire,  all  calices,  the  calyx  being  indeed, 
through  all  the  veronicas,  an  important  and  persistent 
member. 

The  tendency  to  arrange  itself  in  spikes  is  to  be  noted 
as  a  degradation  of  the  veronic  character ;  connecting  it 
on  one  side  with  the  snapdragons,  on  the  other  with  the 
ophryds.  In  Veronica  Ophrydea,  (C.  2210,)  this  resem- 
blance to  the  contorted  tribe  is  carried  so  far  that  "  the 
corolla  of  the  veronica  becomes  irregular,  the  tube  gib- 
bous, the  faux  (throat)^  hairy,  and  three  of  the  lacinise 
(lobes  of  petals)  variously  twisted."  The  spire  of  blossom, 
violet-coloured,  is  then  close  set,  and  exactly  resembles  an 
ophryd,  except  in  being  sharper  at  the  top.  The  en- 
graved outline  of  the  blossom  is  good,  and  very  curious. 

16.  Gentianoides.     This  is  the  most  directly  and  cu- 
riously imitative  among  the — shall  we  call  them — 'his- 
trionic '  types  of  Veronica.     It  grows  exactly  like  a  clus- 
tered upright  gentian ;  has  the  same  kind  of  leaves  at  its 
root,  and  springs  with  the  same  bright  vitality  among 
the  retiring  snows  of  the  Bithynian    Olympus.     (G.  5.) 
If,  however,  the  Caucasian  flower,  C.  1002,  be  the  same, 


7S  PROSERPINA. 

it  lias  lost  its  perfect  grace  in  luxuriance,  growing  as 
large  as  an  asphodel,  and  with  root-leaves  half  a  foot  long. 

The  petals  are  much  veined;  and  this,  of  all  veronicas, 
has  the  lower  petal  smallest  in  proportion  to  the  three 
above, — "  triplo  aut  quadruple)  minori."  (G.) 

17.  Stagnarum.  Marsh  -  Veronica.  The  last  four 
families  we  have  been  examining  vary  from  the  typical 
Veronicas  not  only  in  their  lance-shaped  clusters,  but  in 
their  lengthened,  and  often  every  way  much  enlarged 
leaves  also :  and  the  two  which  we  now  will  take  in  asso- 
ciation, 17  and  18,  carry  the  change  in  aspect  farthest 
of  any,  being  both  of  them  true  water-plants,  with  strong 
stems  and  thick  leaves.  The  present  name  of  my  Veron- 
ica Stagnarum  is  however  V.  anagallis,  a  mere  insult  to 
the  little  water  primula,  which  one  plant  of  the  Veronica 
would  make  fifty  of.  This  is  a  rank  water-weed,  having 
confused  bunches  of  blossom  and  seed,  like  unripe  cur- 
rants, dangling  from  the  leaf -axils.  So  that  where  the 
little  triphylla,  (No.  7,  above,)  has  only  one  blossom, 
daintily  set,  and  well  seen,  this  has  a  litter  of  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  on  a  long  stalk,  of  which  only  three  or  four 
are  well  out  as  flowers,  and  the  rest  are  mere  knobs  of 
bud  or  seed.  The  stalk  is  thick  (half  an  inch  round  at 
the  bottom),  the  leaves  long  and  misshapen.  "  Frequens 
in  fossis,"  D.  203.  French,  Mouron  d'Ean,  but  I  don't 
know  the  root  or  exact  meaidng  of  Mouron. 

An  ugly  Australian  species,  'labiata,'  C.  1660,  has 
leaves  two  inches  long,  of  the  shape  of  an  aloe's,  and 


III.    VERONICA. 


79 


parti  v  aloeine  in  texture,  "  sawed  with  unequal,  fleshy, 
pointed  teeth.'' 

18.  Fontiuin.      Brook  -  Veronica.      Brook  -Lime,   the 
Anglo-Saxon  'lime'  from  Latin  limns,  meaning  the  soft 
mnd  of  streams.     German  ( Bach-bnnge '  (Brook-purse  ?) 
ridiculously  changed  by  the  botanists  into  '  Beccabunga,' 
fur  a  Latin  name !     Yery  beautiful  in  its  crowded  green 
leaves  as  a  stream-companion  ;  rich  and  bright  more  than 
watercress.     See   notice  of  it  at   Matlock,  in  l  Modern 
Painters,'  vol.  v. 

19.  Clara.     Yeroniqiie  des  rochers.     Saxatilis,  I  sup- 
pose, in  Sowerby,  but  am  not  sure  of  having  identified 
that  with  my  own  favourite,  for  which  I  therefore  keep 
the  name  '  Clara,'  (see  above,  §  9) ;  and  the  other  rock 
variety,  if  indeed  another,  must  be  remembered,  together 
with  it. 

20.  Glauca.     G.  7.     And  this,  at  all  events,  with  the 
Clara,  is  to  be  remembered  as  closing  the  series  of  twenty 
families,  acknowledged  by  Proserpina.     It  is  a  beautiful 
low-growing  ivy-leaved   type,   with  flowers  of  subdued 
lilac   blue.     On   Mount   Hymettus:    no   other    locality 
given  in  the  Flora  Grgeca. 

15.  I  am  sorry,  and  shall  always  be  so,  when  the  vari- 
eties of  any  flower  which  I  have  to  commend  to  the  stu- 
dent's memory,  exceed  ten  or  twelve  in  number ;  but  I 
am  content  to  gratify  his  pride  with  lengthier  task,  if 
indeed  he  will  resign  himself  to  the  imperative  close  of 
the  more  inclusive  catalogue,  and  be  content  to  know 


80  PIlOSERPItfA. 

the  twelve,  or  sixteen,  or  twenty,  acknowledged  families, 
thoroughly ;  and  only  in  their  illustration  to  think  of 
rarer  forms.  The  object  of  'Proserpina'  is  to  make  him 
happily  cognizant  of  the  common  aspect  of  Greek  and 
English  flowers  ;  under  the  term  '  English,'  comprehend- 
ing the  Saxon,  Celtic,  Korman,  and  Danish  Floras.  Of 
the  evergreen  shrub  alluded  to  in  §  11  above,  the  Ve- 
ronica Decussata  of  the  Pacific,  which  is  "  a  bushy  ever- 
green, with  beautifully  set  cross-leaves,  and  white  blos- 
soms scented  like  olea  fragrans,"  I  should  like  him  only 
to  read  with  much  surprise,  and  some  incredulity,  in 
Pinkerton's  or  other  entertaining  travellers'  voyages. 

16.  And  of  the  families  given,  he  is  to  note  for  the 
common  simple  characteristic,  that  they  are  quatrefoils 
referred  to  a  more  or  less  elevated  position  on  a  central 
stem,  and  having,  in  that  relation,  the  lowermost  petal 
diminished,  contrary  to  the  almost  universal  habit  of 
other  flowers  to  develope  in  such  a  position  the  lower 
petal  chiefly,  that  it  may  have  its  full  share  of  light. 
You  will  find  nothing  but  blunder  and  embarrassment 
result  from  any  endeavour  to  enter  into  further  particu- 
lars, such  as  "  the  relation  of  the  dissepiment  with  respect 
to  the  valves  of  the  capsule,"  etc.,  etc.,  since  "  in  the 
various  species  of  Veronica  almost  every  kind  of  dehis- 
cence  may  be  observed  "  (C.  under  V.  perfoliata,  1936, 
an  Australian  species).  Sibthorpe  gives  the  entire  defi- 
nition of  Veronica  with  only  one  epithet  added  to  mine, 
"  Corolla  quadrifida,  rotata,  lacinia  infima  angustiore," 


III.    VERONICA.  81 

but  I  do  not  know  what  '  rotata '  here  means,  as  there  is 
no  appearance  of  revolved  action  in  the  petals,  so  far  as 
I  can  see. 

17.  Of  the  mythic  or  poetic  significance  of  the  ver- 
onica, there  is  less  to  be  said  than  of  its  natural  beauty. 
I  have  not  been  able  to  discover  with  what  feeling,  or  at 
what  time,  its  sacred  name  was  originally  given  ;  and  the 
legend  of  S.  Veronica  herself  is,  in  the  substance  of  it, 
irrational,  and   therefore   incredible.     The   meaning   of 
the  term  i  rational,'  as  applied  to  a  legend  or  miracle,  is, 
that  there  has  been  an  intelligible  need  for  the  permis- 
sion of  the  miracle  at  the  time  when  it  is  recorded ;  and 
that  the  nature  and  manner  of  the  act  itself  should  be 
comprehensible  in  the  scope.     There  was  thus  quite  sim- 
ple need  for  Christ  to  feed  the  multitudes,  and  to  appear 
to  S.  Paul ;  but  no  need,  so  far  as  human  intelligence 
can  reach,  for  the  reflection  of  His  features  upon  a  piece 
of  linen  which  could  be  seen  by  not  one  in  a  million  *)f 
the  disciples  to  whom  He  might  more  easily,  at  any  time,- 
manifest  Himself  personally  and  perfectly.     Nor,  I  be- 
lieve, has  the  story  of  S.  Veronica  ever  been  asserted  to 
be  other  than  symbolic  by  the  sincere  teachers  of  the 
Church  ;  and,  even  so  far  as  in  that  merely  explanatory 
function,  it  became  the  seal  of  an  extreme  sorrow,  it  is 
not  easy  to  understand  how  the  pensive  fable  was  asso- 
ciated with  a  flower  so  familiar,  so  bright,  and  so  popu- 
larly of  good  omen,  as  the  Speedwell. 

18.  Yet,  the  fact  being  actually  so,  and  this  consecra- 


82  PROSERPINA. 

tion  of  the  veronica  being  certainly  far  more  ancient  and 
earnest  than  the  faintly  romantic  and  extremely  absurd 
legend  of  the  forget-me-not;  the  speedwell  has  assuredly 
the  higher  claim  to  be  given  and  accepted  as  a  token  of 
pure  and  faithful  love,  and  to  be  trusted  as  a  sweet  sign 
that  the  innocence  of  affection  is  indeed  more  frequent, 
and  the  appointed  destiny  of  its  faith  more  fortunate, 
than  our  inattentive  hearts  have  hitherto  discerned. 

19.  And  this  the  more,  because  the  recognized  virtues 
and  uses  of  the  plant  are  real  and  manifold ;  and  the 
ideas  of  a  peculiar  honourableness  and  worth  of  life  con- 
nected with  it  by  the  German  popular  name  '  Honour- 
prize  ' ;  while  to  the  heart  of  the  British  race,  the  same 
thought  is  brought  home  by  Shakespeare's  adoption  of 
the  flower's  Welsh  name,  for  the  faithfullest  common 
soldier  of  his  ideal  king.  As  a  lover's  pledge,  therefore, 
it  does  not  merely  mean  memory  ; — for,  indeed,  why 
should  love  be  thought  of  as  such  at  all,  if  it  need  to 
promise  riot  to  forget  ? — but  the  blossom  is  significant 
also  of  the  lover's  best  virtues,  patience  in  suffering, 
purity  in  thought,  gaiety  in  courage,  and  serenity  in 
truth :  and  therefore  I  make  it,  worthily,  the  clasping 
and  central  flower  of  the  Cytherides. 


GHAPTEK  IY. 

GIULIETTA. 

1.  SUPPOSING  that,  in  early  life,  one  had  the  power  of 
living  to  one's  fancy, — and  why  should  we  not,  if  the 
said  fancy  were  restrained  by  the  knowledge  of  the  two 
great  laws  concerning  our  nature,  that  happiness  is  in- 
creased, not  by  the  enlargement  of  the  possessions,  but 
of  the  heart;  and  days  lengthened,  not  by  the  crowding 
of  emotions,  but  the  economy  of  them? — if  thus  taught, 
we  had,  I  repeat,  the  ordering  of  our  house  and  estate  in 
our  own  hands,  I  believe  no  manner  of  temperance  in 
pleasure  would  be  better  rewarded  than  that  of  making 
our  gardens  gay  only  with  common  flowers ;  and  leaving 
those  which  needed  care  for  their  transplanted  life  to  be 
found  in  their  native  places  when  we  travelled.  So  long 
as  I  had  crocus  and  daisy  in  the  spring,  roses  in  the  sum- 
mer, and  hollyhocks  and  pinks  in  the  autumn,  I  used  to 
be  myself  independent  of  farther  horticulture, — and  it 
is  only  now  that  I  am  old,  and  since  pleasant  travelling 
has  become  impossible  to  me,  that  I  am  thankful  to  have 
the  white  narcissus  in  my  borders,  instead  of  waiting  to 
walk  through  the  fragrance  of  the  meadows  of  Clarens ; 
and  pleased  to  see  the  milk  wort  blue  on  my  scythe-mown 


84  PROSE  K  PI  \  A. 

banks,  since  I  cannot  gather  it  any  more  on  the  rocks  of 
the  Vosges,  or  in  the  divine  glens  of  Jura. 

2.  Among  the  losses,  all  the  more  fatal  in  heing  un- 
felt,  brought   upon    us  by   the   fury  and   vulgarity   of 
modern  life,  I  count  for  one  of  the  saddest,  the  loss  of 
the  wish  to  gather  a  flower  in  travelling.     The  other  day, 
— whether  indeed  a  sign  of  some  dawning  of  doubt  and 
remorse  in  the  public  mind,  as  to  the  perfect  jubilee  of 
railroad  journey,  or  merely  a  piece  of  the  common  daily 
flattery  on  which  the  power  of  the  British  press  first  de- 
pends, I  cannot  judge ; — but,  for  one  or  other  of  such 
motives,  I  saw  lately  in  some  illustrated  paper,  a  pictorial 
comparison  of  old-fashioned  and  modern  travel,  represent- 
ing, as  the  type  of  things  passed  away,  the  outside  passen- 
gers of  the  mail  shrinking  into  huddled  and  silent  dis- 
tress from   the  swirl   of  a    winter   snowstorm ;  and  for 
type  of  the  present  Elysian  dispensation,  the  inside  of  a 
first-class  saloon  carriage,  with  a  beautiful  young  lady  in 
the  last  pattern  of  Parisian  travelling  dress,  conversing, 
Daily  news  in  hand,  with  a  young  officer — her  fortunate 
vis-a-vis  —  on  the  subject  of  our   military   successes  in 
Afghanistan  and  Zululand.* 

3.  I  will  not,  in  presenting — it  must  not  be  called  the 
other  side,  but  the  supplementary,  and  wilfully  omitted, 
facts,  of  this  ideal, — oppose,  as  I  fairly  might,  the  dis- 

*  See  letter  on  the  last  results  of  our  African  campaigns,  in  the 
Morning  Post  of  April  14th;  of  this  year. 


IV.    GIULIETTA.  85 

comforts  of  a  modern  cheap  excursion  train,  to  the 
chariot-and-four,  with  outriders  and  courier,  of  ancient 
noblesse.  I  will  compare  only  the  actual  facts,  in  the 
former  and  in  latter  years,  of  my  own  journey  from  Paris 
to  Geneva.  As  matters  are  now  arranged,  I  find  myself, 
at  half  past  eight  in  the  evening,  wailing  in  a  confused 
crowd  with  which  I  am  presently  to  contend  for  a  seat, 
in  the  dim  light  and  cigar-stench  of  the  great  station  of 
the  Lyons  line.  Making  slow  way  through  the  hostili- 
ties of  the  platform,  in  partly  real,  partly  weak  polite- 
as  may  be,  I  find  the  corner  seats  of  course  already 
full  of  prohibitory  cloaks  and  umbrellas ;  but  manage  to 
get  a  middle  back  one ;  the  net  overhead  is  already  sur- 
charged with  a  bulging  extra  portmanteau,  so  that  I 
squeeze  my  desk  as  well  as  I  can  between  my  legs,  and 
arrange  what  wraps  I  have  about  my  knees  and  shoulders. 
Follow  a  couple  of  hours  of  simple  patience,  with  noth- 
ing to  entertain  one's  thoughts  but  the  steady  roar  of  the 
line  under  the  wheels,  the  blinking  and  dripping  of  the 
oil  lantern,  and  the  more  or  less  ungainly  wretchedness, 
and  variously  sullen  compromises  and  encroachments  of 
posture,  among  the  five  other  passengers  preparing  them- 
selves for  sleep :  the  last  arrangement  for  the  night  be- 
ing to  shut  up  both  windows,  in  order  to  effect,  with  our 
six  breaths,  a  salutary  modification  of  the  night  air. 

4.  The  banging  and  bumping  of  the  carriages  over  the 
turn-tables  wakes  me  up  as  I  am  beginning  to  doze,  at 
Fontainebleau,  and  again  at  Sens ;  and  the  trilling  and 


86  PROSERPINA. 

thrilling  of  the  little  telegraph  bell  establishes  itself  in 
my  ears,  and  stays  there,  trilling  me  at  last  into  a  shiver 
ing,  suspicious  sort  of  sleep,  which,  with  a  few  vaguely 
fretful  shrugs  and  fidgets,  carries  me  as  far  as  Tonnerre, 
where  the  "quinze  minutes  d'arret '  revolutionize  every- 
thing ;  and  I  get  a  turn  or  two  on  the  platform,  and 
perhaps  a  glimpse  of  the  stars,  with  promise  of  a  clear 
morning  ;  and  so  generally  keep  awake  past  Mont  Bard, 
remembering  the  happy  walks  one  used  to  have  on  the 
terrace  under  Buffon's  tower,  and  thence  watching,  if 
perchance,  from  the  mouth  of  the  high  tunnel,  any  film 
of  moonlight  may  show  the  far  undulating  masses  of  the 
hills  of  Citeaux.  But  most  likely  one  knows  the  place 
where  the  great  old  view  used  to  be  only  by  the  sensible 
quickening  of  the  pace  as  the  train  turns  down  the  in- 
cline, and  crashes  through  the  trenched  cliffs  into  the  con- 
fusion and  high  clattering  vault  of  the  station  at  Dijon. 

5.  And  as  my  journey  is  almost  always  in  the  spring- 
time, the  twisted  spire  of  the  cathedral  usually  shows  it- 
self against  the  first  grey  of  dawn,  as  we  run  out  again 
southwards :  and  resolving  to  watch  the  sunrise,  I  fall 
more  complacently  asleep, — and  the  sun  is  really  up  by 
the  time  one  has  to  change  carriages,  and  get  morning 
coffee  at  Macon.  And  from  Amberieux,  through  the 
Jura  valley,  one  is  more  or  less  feverishly  happy  and 
thankful,  not  so  much  for  being  in  sight  of  Mont  Blanc 
again,  as  in  having  got  through  the  nasty  and  gloomy 
night  journey ;  and  then  the  sight  of  the  Rhone  and 


IT.    G1ULIETTA.  87 

the  Saleve  seems  only  like  a  dream,  presently  to  end  in 
nothingness  ;  till,  covered  with  dust,  and  feeling  as  if  one 
nover  should  be  fit  for  anything  any  more,  one  staggers 
down  the  hill  to  the  Hotel  des  Eergues,  and  sees  the 
dirtied  Rhone,  with  its  new  iron  bridge,  and  the  smoke 
of  a  new  factory  exactly  dividing  the  line  of  the  aiguilles 
of  Chamouni. 

6.  That  is  the  journey  as  it  is  now, — and  as,  for  me,  it 
must  be ;  except  on  foot,  since  there  is  now  no  other  way 
of  making  it.  But  this  was  the  way  we  used  to  manage 
it  in  old  days  : — 

Very  early  in  Continental  transits  we  had  found  out 
that  the  family  travelling  carriage,  taking  much  time 
and  ingenuity  to  load,  needing  at  the  least  three,  usually 
four — horses,  and  on  Alpine  passes  six,  not  only  jolted 
and  lagged  painfully  on  bad  roads,  but  was  liable  in  every 
way  to  more  awkward  discomfitures  than  lighter  vehi- 
cles ;  getting  itself  jammed  in  archways,  wrenched  with 
damage  out  of  ruts,  and  involved  in  volleys  of  justifiable 
reprobation  among  market  stalls.  So  when  we  knew 
better,  my  father  and  mother  always  had  their  own  old- 
fashioned  light  two-horse  carriage  to  themselves,  and  I 
had  one  made  with  any  quantity  of  front  and  side 
pockets  for  books  and  picked  up  stones  ;  and  hung  very 
low,  with  a  fixed  side-step,  which  I  could  get  off  or  on 
with  the  horses  at  the  trot ;  and  at  any  rise  or  fall  of  the 
road,  relieve  them,  and  get  my  own  walk,  without  troub- 
ling the  driver  to  think  of  me. 


88  PEOSERPINA. 

7.  Thus,  leaving  Paris  in  the  bright  spring  morning, 
when  the    Seine  glittered  gaily  at  Charenton,  and  the 
arbres  de  Judee  were  mere  pyramids  of  purple  bloom 
round  Villeneuve-St.-Georges,  one  had  an  afternoon  walk 
among  the  rocks  of  Fontainebleau,  and  next  day  we  got 
early  into  Sens,  for  new  lessons  in  its  cathedral  aisles, 
and  the  first  saunter  among  the  budding  vines  of  the 
coteaux.     I  finished  my  plate  of  the  Tower  of  Giotto, 
for  the  <  Seven  Lamps,'  in  the  old  inn  at  Sens,  which 
Dickens  has  described  in  his  wholly  matchless  way  in  the 
last  chapter  of  'Mrs.  Lirripers  Lodgings'.     The  next  day 
brought  us  to  the  oolite  limestones  at  Mont  Bard,  and 
we  always  spent  the  Sunday  at  the  Bell  in  Dijon.     Mon- 
day, the  drive  of  drives,  through  the  village  of  Genlis, 
the  fortress  of  Auxonne,  and  up  the  hill  to  the  vine- 
surrounded  town  of  Dole ;  whence,  behold   at  last  the 
limitless  ranges  of  Jura,  south  and'  north,  beyond  the 
woody  plain,  and  above  them  the  *  Derniers  Rochers ' 
and  the  white  square-set  summit,  worshipped  ever  anew. 
Then  at  Poligny,  the  same  afternoon,  we  gathered  the 
first  milkwort  for  that  year;  and  on   Tuesday,  at    St. 
Laurent,  the  wild  lily  of  the  valley ;  and  on  Wednesday, 
at  Morez,  gentians. 

And  on  Thursday,  the  eighth  or  ninth  day  from  Paris, 
days  all  spent  patiently  and  well,  one  saw  from  the 
gained  height  of  Jura,  the  great  Alps  unfold  themselves 
in  their  chains  and  wreaths  of  incredible  crest  and  cloud. 

8.  Unhappily,  during  all  the  earliest  and  usefullest 


IV.    GIULIETTA.  89 

years  of  such  travelling,  I  had  no  thought  of  ever  taking 
up  botany  as  a  study  ;  feeling  well  that  even  geology, 
which  was  antecedent  to  painting  with  me,  could  not  be 
followed  out  iii  connection  with  art  but  under  strict 
limit.-,  and  with  sore  shortcomings.  It  has  only  been 
the  later  discovery  of  the  uselessness  of  old  scientific 
botany,  and  the  abominableness  of  new,  as  an  element 
of  education  for  youth  ; — and  my  certainty  that  a  true 
knowledge  of  their  native  Flora  was  meant  by  Heaven 
to  be  one  of  the  first  heart-possessions  of  every  happy 
boy  and  girl  in  flower-bearing  lands,  that  have  compelled 
me  to  gather  into  system  my  fading  memories,  and  wan- 
dering thoughts.*  And  of  course  in  the  diaries  written 
at  places  of  which  I  now  want  chiefly  the  details  of  the 
Flora,  I  find  none  ;  and  in  this  instance  of  the  milkwort, 
whose  name .  I  was  first  told  by  the  Chamouni  guide, 
Joseph  Couttet,  then  walking  with  me  on  the  unperilous 
turf  of  the  first  rise  of  the  Yosges,  west  of  Strasburg, 
and  rebuking  me  indignantly  for  my  complaint  that, 
being  then  thirty-seven  years  old,  and  not  yet  able  to 
draw  the  great  plain  and  distant  spire,  it  was  of  no  use 
trying  in  the  poor  remainder  of  life  to  do  anything  seri- 
ous,— then,  and  there,  I  say,  for  the  first  time  examining 
the  strange  little  flower,  and  always  associating  it,  since, 
with  the  limestone  crags  of  Alsace  and  Burgundy,  I 

*  I  deliberately,  not  garrulously,  allow  more  autobiography  in 
'  Proserpina  '  than  is  becoming,  because  I  know  not  how  far  I  may  be 
permitted  to  carry  on  that  which  was  begun  in  '  Fors.' 


90  PROSERPINA. 

don't  find  a  single  note  of  its  preferences  or  antipathies 
in  other  districts,  and  cannot  say  a  word  about  the  soil  it 
chooses,  or  the  height  it  ventures,  or  the  familiarities  to 
which  it  condescends,  on  the  Alps  or  Apennines. 

9.  But  one  thing  I  have  ascertained  of  it,  lately  at 
Brantwood,  that  it  is  capricious  and  fastidious  beyond 
any  other  little  blossom  I  know  of.     In  laying  out  the 
rock  garden,  most  of  the  terrace  sides  were  trusted  to 
remnants  of  the  natural  slope,  propped  by  fragments  of 
stone,  among  which  nearly  every  other  wild  flower  that 
likes  sun  and  air,  is  glad  sometimes  to  root  itself.     But 
at  the  top  of  all,  one  terrace  was  brought  to  mathemati- 
cally true  level  of  surface,  and  slope  of  side,  and  turfed 
with  delicately  chosen  and  adjusted  sods,  meant  to  be  kept 
duly  trim  by  the  scythe.     And  only  on  this  terrace  does 
the  Gmlietta  choose  to  show  herself, — and  even  there, 
not  in  any  consistent  places,  but  gleaming  out  here  in 
one  year,  there  in  another,  like  little  bits  of  unexpected 
sky  through  cloud  ;  and  entirely  refusing  to  allow  either 
bank  or  terrace  to  be  mown  the  least  trim  during  her 
time  of  disport  there.     So  spared  and   indulged,  there 
are  no  more  wayward  things  in  all  the  woods  or  wilds ; 
no  more  delicate  and  perfect  things  to  be  brought  up  by 
watch  through  day  and  night,  than  her  recumbent  clus- 
ters,  trickling,  sometimes  almost  gushing  through    the 
grass,  and  meeting  in  tiny  pools  of  flawless  blue. 

10.  I  will  not  attempt  at  present  to  arrange  the  varie- 
ties of  the  Giulietta,  for  I  find  that  all  the  larger  and 


IV.    GIULIETTA.  91 

presumably  characteristic  forms  belong  to  the  Cape  ;  and 
only  since  Mr.  Fronde  came  back  from  his  African  ex- 
plorings  have  I  been  able  to  get  any  clear  idea  of  the 
brilliancy  and  associated  infinitude  of  the  Cape  flowers. 
If  I  could  but  write  down  the  substance  of  what  he  has 
told  me,  in  the  course  of  a  chat  or  two,  which  have  been 
among  the  best  privileges  of  my  recent  stay  in  London, 
(prolonged  as  it  has  been  by  recurrence  of  illness,)  it 
would  be  a  better  summary  of  what  should  be  generally 
known  in  the  natural  history  of  southern  plants  than  I 
could  glean  from  fifty  volumes  of  horticultural  botany. 
In  the  meantime,  everything  being  again  thrown  out  of 
gear  by  the  aforesaid  illness,  I  must  let  this  piece  of 
4  Proserpina '  break  off,  as  most  of  my  work  does — and  as 
perhaps  all  of  it  may  soon  do — leaving  only  suggestion 
for  the  happier  research  of  the  students  who  trust  me 
thus  far. 

11.  Some  essential  points  respecting  the  flower  I  shall 
note,  however,  before  ending.  There  is  one  large  and 
frequent  species  of  it  of  which  the  flowers  are  delicately 
yellow,  touched  with  tawny  red,  forming  one  of  the  chief 
elements  of  wild  foreground  vegetation  in  the  healthy 
districts  of  hard  Alpine  limestone.*  This  is,  I  believe, 

*  In  present  Botany,  Polygala  Chamaebuxus ;  C.  316  :  or,  in  Eng- 
lish, Much  Milk  Ground-box.  It  is  not,  as  matters  usually  go,  a  name 
to  be  ill  thought  of,  as  it  really  contains  three  ideas ;  and  the  plant 
does,  without  doubt,  somewhat  resemble  box,  and  grows  on  the 
ground;  — far  more  fitly  called  'ground -box'  than  the  Veronica 


92  PROSERPIXA. 

the  only  European  type  of  the  large  Cape  varieties,  in  all 
of  which,  judging  from  such  plates  as  have  been  accessible 
to  me,  the  crests  or  fringes  of  the  lower  petal  are  less 
conspicuous 4han  in  the  smaller  species;  and  the  flower 
almost  takes  the  aspect  of  a  broom-blossom  or  pease- 
blossom.  In  the  smaller  European  varieties,  the  white 
fringes  of  the  lower  petal  are  the  most  important  and 
characteristic  part  of  the  flower,  and  they  are,  among 
European  wild  flowers,  absolutely  without  any  likeness 
of  associated  structure.  The  fringes  or  crests  which, 
towards  the  origin  of  petals,  so  often  give  a  frosted  or 
gemmed  appearance  to  the  centres  of  flowers,  are  here 
thrown  to  the  extremity  of  the  petal,  and  suggest  an  al- 
most coralline  structure  of  blossom,  which  in  no  other 
instance  whatever  has  been  imitated,  still  less  carried  out 
into  its  conceivable  varieties  of  form.  How  many  such 
varieties  might  have  been  produced  if  these  fringes  of  the 
Giulietta,  or  those  already  alluded  to  of  Lucia  nivea,  had 
been  repeated  and  enlarged  ;  as  the  type,  once  adopted 
for  complex  bloom  in  the  thistle-head,  is  multiplied  in 
the  innumerable  gradations  of  thistle,  teasel,  hawk  weed, 
and  aster !  We  might  have  had  flowers  edged  with  lace 
finer  than  was  ever  woven  by  mortal  fingers,  or  tasselled 

*  ground- oak.'  I  want  to  find  a  pretty  name  for  it  in  connection  with 
Savoy  or  Dauphine,  where  it  indicates,  as  above  stated,  (he  healthy 
districts  of  hard  limestone.  I  do  not  remember  it  as  ever  occurring 
among  the  dark  and  moist  shales  of  the  inner  mountain  ranges,  which 
at  once  confine  and  pollute  the  air. 


IV.    GIULIETTA.  93 

and  braided  with  fretwork  of  silver,  never  tarnished — or 
hoarfrost  that  grew  brighter  in  the  sun.  But  it  was  not 
to  be,  and  after  a  few  hints  of  what  might  be  done  in 
this  kind,  the  Fate,  or  Folly,  or,  on  recent  theories,  the 
extreme  fitness — and  consequent  survival,  of  the  Thistles 
and  Dandelions,  entirely  drives  the  fringed  Lucias  and 
blue-flushing  niilkworts  out  of  common  human  neigh- 
bourhood, to  live  recluse  lives  with  the  memories  of  the 
abbots  of  Cluny,  and  pastors  of  Piedmont. 

12.  I  have  called  the  Giulietta  *  \Aue-flushing  ^  because 
it  is  one  of  the  group  of  exquisite  flowers  which  at  the 
time  of  their  own  blossoming,  breathe  their  colour  into 
the  surrounding  leaves  and  supporting  stem.     Yery  not- 
ably the  Grape  hyacinth  and  Jura  hyacinth,  and  some 
of  the  Yestals,  empurpling  all  their  green  leaves  even 
to  the  ground:  a  quite  distinct  nature  in  the  flower,  ob- 
serve, this  possession  of  a  power  to  kindle  the  leaf  and 
stem  with  its  own  passion,  from  that  of  the  heaths,  roses, 
or  lilies,  where  the  determined  bracts  or  calices  assert 
themselves  in  opposition  to  the  blossom,  as  little  pine- 
leaves,  or  mosses,  or  brown-paper  packages,  and  the  like. 

13.  The  Giulietta,  however,  is  again  entirely  separate 
from  the  other  leaf-flushing  blossoms,  in  that,  after  the 
two  green  leaves  next  the  flower  have  glowed  with  its 
blue,  while  it  lived,  they  do  not  fade  or  waste  with  it,  but 
return  to  their  own  former  green  simplicity,  and  close 
over  it  to  protect  the  seed.     I  only  know  this  to  be  the 
case  with   the  Giulietta  Regina ;  but  suppose  it  to  be 


94  PROSERPINA. 

(with  variety  of  course  in  the  colours)  a  condition  in 
other  species, — though  of  course  nothing  is  ever  said  of 
it  in  the  botanical  accounts  of  them.  I  gather,  however, 
from  Curtis's  careful  drawings  that  the  prevailing  colour 
of  the  Cape  species  is  purple,  thus  justifying  still  further 
my  placing  them  among  the  Cytherides  ;  and  I  am  con- 
tent to  take  the  descriptive  epithets  at  present  given 
them,  for  the  following  five  of  this  southern  group,  hop- 
ing that  they  may  be  explained  for  me  afterwards  by 
helpful  friends. 

14.  Bracteolata,     C.  345. 
Oppositifolia,  C.  492. 
Speciosa,         C.  1790. 

These  three  all  purple,  and  scarcely  distinguishable  from 
sweet  pease-blossom,  only  smaller. 

Stipulacea,  C.  1715.  Small,  and  very  beautiful,  lilac 
and  purple,  with  a  leaf  and  mode  of  growth  like  rose- 
mary. The  "  Foxtail "  milkwort,  whose  name  I  don't  ac- 
cept, C.  1006,  is  intermediate  between  this  and  the  next 
species. 

15.  Mixta,  C.  1714.      I   don't  see  what   mingling  is 
meant,  except  that  it  is  just  like  Erica  tetralix  in  the 
leaf,  only,  apparently,  having  little  four-petalled  pinks 
for  blossoms.      This   appearance  is  thus  botanical ly  ex- 
plained.    I  do  not  myself  understand  the  description, 
but  copy  it,   thinking  it  may   be  of  use  to  somebody. 
*•  The  apex  of  the  carina  is  expanded  into  a  two-lobed 
plain  petal,  the  lobes  of  which  are  emarginate.     This  ap- 


IV.    GIULIETTA.  95 

pendix  is  of  a  bright  rose  colour,  and  forms  the  principal 
pai  t  of  the  flower."  The  describer  relaxes,  or  relapses, 
into  common  language  so  far  as  to  add  that  '  this  appen- 
dix' "dispersed  among  the  green  foliage  in  every  part 
of  the  shrub,  gives  it  a  pretty  lively  appearance." 

Perhaps  this  may  also  be  worth  extracting. 

"  Carina,  deeply  channeled,  of  a  saturated  purple  with- 
in, sides  folded  together,  so  as  to  include  and  firmly 
embrace  the  style  and  stamens,  which,  when  arrived  at 
maturity,  upon  being  moved,  escape  elastically  from  their 
confinement,  and  strike  against  the  two  erect  petals  or 
alae — by  which  the  pollen  is  dispersed. 

"  Stem  shrubby,  with  long  flexile  branches."  (Length 
or  height  not  told.  I  imagine  like  an  ordinary  heath's.) 

The  terra 'carina,'  occurring  twice  in  the  above  descrip- 
tion, is  peculiar  to  the  structure  of  the  pease  and  milk- 
worts;  we  will  examine  it  afterwards.  The  European 
varieties  of  the  miikwort,  except  the  chamaebuxus,  are 
all  minute, — and,  their  ordinary  epithets  being  at  least 
inoffensive,  I  give  them  for  reference  till  we  find  prettier 
ones ;  altering  only  the  Calcarea,  because  we  could  not 
have  a  <  Chalk  Juliet,'  and  two  varieties  of  the  Eegina, 
changed  for  reason  good — her  name,  according  to  the 
last  modern  refinements  of  grace  and  ease  in  pronuncia- 
tion, being  Eu-vularis,  var.  genuina !  My  readers  may 
more  happily  remember  her  and  her  sister  as  follows  : — 


96  PROSERPINA. 

16.  (i.)  Giulietta  Eegina.     Pure  blue.     The  same  in 
colour,  form,  and  size,  throughout  Europe. 

(n.)  Giulietta  Soror-Reginse,  Pale,  reddish-blue 
or  white  in  the  flower,  and  smaller  in  the 
leaf,  otherwise  like  the  Regina. 

(in.)  Giulietta  Depressa.  The  smallest  of  those  I 
can  find  drawings  of.  Flowers,  blue  ;  lilac 
in  the  fringe,  and  no  bigger  than  pins' 
heads  ;  the  leaves  quite  gem-like  in  minute- 
ness and  order. 

(iv.)  Giulietta  Cisterciana.  Its  present  name, f  Cal- 
carea,'  is  meant,  in  botanic  Latin,  to  express 
its  growth  on  limestone  or  chalk  moun- 
tains. But  we  might  as  well  call  the  South 
Down  sheep,  Calcareous  mutton.  My  epi- 
thet will  rightly  associate  it  with  the  Bur- 
gundian  hills  round  Cluny  and  Citeanx. 
Its  ground  leaves  are  much  larger  than 
those  of  the  Depressa ;  the  flower  a  little 
larger,  but  very  pale. 

(v.)  Giulietta  Austriaca.  Pink,  and  very  lovely, 
with  bold  cluster  of  ground  leaves,  but  it- 
self minute — almost  dwarf.  Called  '  small 
bitter  milkwort '  by  S.  How  far  distinct 
from  the  next  following  one,  Norwegian, 
is  not  told. 


IV.    G I U LI ETTA.  97 

The  above  five  kinds  are  given  by  Sow- 

erby  as  British,  but  I  have  never  found  the 

Austriaca  myself, 
(vi.)  Giulietta  Amara.     Xorwegian.     Very  quaint 

in  blossom  outline,  like  a  little  blue  rabbit 

with  long  ears.     D.  1169. 

IT.  Xobody  tells  me  why  either  this  last  or  No.  5  have 
been  called  bitter ;  and  Gerarde's  five  kinds  are  distin- 
guished only  by  colour — blue,  red,  white,  purple,  and 
"the  dark,  of  an  overworn  ill  favoured  colour,  which 
maketh  it  to  differ  from  all  others  of  his  kind."  I  find 
no  account  of  this  ill-favoured  one  elsewhere.  The  white 
is  my  Soror  Regiuae  ;  the  red  must  be  the  Austriaca;  but 
the  purple  and  overworn  ones  are  perhaps  now  overworn 
indeed.  All  of  them  must  have  been  more  common  in 
Gerarde's  time  than  now,  for  he  goes  on  to  say  "  Mi  1k- 
woort  is  called  Avibarualis  flos*  so  called  because  it  doth 
specially  flourish  in  the  Crosse  or  Gang-weeke,  or  Roga- 
tion-weeke,  of  which  flowers,  the  maidens  which  use  in 
the  countries  to  walk  the  procession  do  make  themselves 
garlands  and  nosegaies,  in  English  we  may  call  it  Crosse 
flower,  Gang  flower,  Rogation  flower,  and  Milk-woort." 

18.  Above,  at  page  197,  vol.  i.,  in  first  arranging  the 
Cythericlcs,  I  too  hastily  concluded  that  the  ascription  to 
this  plant  of  helpfulness  to  nursing  mothers  was  'more 
than  ordinarily  false "  ;  thinking  that  its  rarity  could 
never  have  allowed  it  to  be  fairly  tried.  If  indeed  true, 

or  in  any  degree  true,  the  flower  has  the  best  right  of  all 

7 


98  PUOSEIIPINA. 

to  be  classed  with  the  Cytherides,  and  we  might  have  as 
much  of  it  for  beauty  and  for  service  as  we  choose,  if  we 
only  took  half  the  pains  to  garnish  our  summer  gardens 
with  living  and  life-giving  blossom,  that  we  do  to  garnish 
our  winter  gluttonies  with  dying  and  useless  ones. 

19.  I  have  said  nothing  of  root,  or  fruit,  or  seed,  hav- 
ing never  had  the  hardness  of  heart  to  pull  up  a  milkwort 
cluster — nor  the  chance  of  watching  one  in  seed  : — The 
pretty  thing  vanishes  as  it  comes,  like  the  blue  sky  of 
April,  and  leaves  no  sign  of  itself — that  1  ever  found. 
The  botanists  tell  me  that  its  fruit  "  dehisces  loculicidally," 
which  I  suppose  is  botanic  for  "  splits  like  boxes,"  (but 
boxes  shouldn't  split,  and  didn't,  as  we  used  to  make  and 
handle  them  before  railways).      Out  of  the  split  boxes 
fall  seeds — too  few  ;  and,  as  aforesaid,  the  plant  never 
seems  to  grow -again  in  the  same  spot.     I  should  thank- 
fully receive  any  notes  from  friends  happy  enough  to 
live  near  milkwort  banks,  on  the  manner  of  its  nativity. 

20.  Meanwhile,  the  Thistle,  and  the  Nettle,  and  the 
Dock,  and  the  Dandelion  are  cared  for  in  their  genera- 
tions by  the  finest  arts  of — Providence,  shall  we  say  ?  or 
of  the  spirits  appointed  to  punish  our  own  want  of  Pro- 
vidence ?     May  I  ask  the  reader  to  look  back  to  the 
seventh  chapter  of  the  first  volume,  for  it  contains  sug- 
gestions of  thoughts  which  came  to  me  at  a  time  of  very 
earnest  and  faithful  inquiry,  set  down,   I  now  see  too 
shortly,  under  the  press  of  reading  they  involved,  but 
intelligible  enough  if  they  are  read  as  slowly  as  they  were 


XI. 
States  of  Adversity. 


IV.    GIULIETTA.  99 

• 

written,  and  especially  note  the  paragraph  of  summary  of 
p.  121  on  the  power  of  the  Earth  Mother,  as  Mother,  and 
>7ye  ;  watching  and  rewarding  the  conditions  which 
induce  adversity  and  prosperity  in  the  kingdoms  of  men  : 
comparing  with  it  carefully  the  close  of  the  fourth  chap- 
ter, p.  So,*  which  contains,  for  the  now  recklessly  mul- 
tiplying classes  of  artists  and  colonists,  truths  essential 
to  their  skill,  and  inexorable  upon  their  labour. 

21.  The  pen-drawing  facsimiled  by  Mr.  Allen  with 
more  than  his  usual  care  in  the  frontispiece  to  this  num- 
ber of  '  Proserpina/  was  one  of  many  executed  during 
the  investigation  of  the  schools  of  Gothic  (German,  and 
later  French),  which  founded  their  minor  ornamentation 
on  the  serration  of  the  thistle  leaf,  as  the  Greeks  on  that 
of  the  Acanthus,  but  with  a  consequent,  and  often  mor- 
bid, love  of  thorny  points,  and  insistance  upon  jagged  or 
knotted  intricacies  of  stubborn  vegetation,  which  is  con- 
nected in  a  deeply  mysterious  way  with  the  gloomier 
forms  of  Catholic  asceticism. f 

*  Which,  with  the  following  page,  is  the  summary  of  many  chap- 
ters of  '  Modern  Painters  : '  and  of  the  aims  kept  in  view  throughout 
'  Muncra  Pulveris.'  The  three  kinds  of  Desert  specified— of  Rccd, 
Sand,  and  Rock — should  be  kept  in  mind  as  exhaustively  including 
the  states  of  the  earth  neglected  by  man.  For  instance  of  a  Reed 
desert,  produced  merely  by  his  neglect,  see  Sir  Samuel  Baker's  ac- 
count of  the  choking  up  of  the  bed  of  the  White  Nile.  Of  the  sand 
Sir  F.  Palgrave's  journey  from  the  Djowf  to  Havel,  vol.  i.,  p.  92. 

f  This  subject  is  first  entered  on  in  the  '  Seven  Lamps,'  and  carried 
forward  in  the  final  chapters  of  '  Modern  Painters,'  to  the  point  wheie 


100  PROSERPINA. 

4» 

22.  But  also,  in  beginning  c  Proserpina,'  I  intended  to 
give  many  illustrations  of  the  light  and  shade  of  fore- 
ground leaves  belonging  to  the  nobler  groups  of  thistles, 
because  I  thought  they  had  been  neglected  by  ordinary 
botanical  draughtsmen  ;  not  knowing  at  that  time  either 
the  original  drawings  at  Oxford  for  the  '  Flora  Grseca,' 
or  the  nobly  engraved  plates  executed  in  the  close  of  the 
last  century  for  the  '  Flora  Danica '  and  '  Flora  Londin- 
ensis.'  The  latter  is  in  the  most  difficult  portraiture  of 
the  larger  plants,  even  the  more  wonderful  of  the  two ; 
and  had  I  seen  the  miracles  of  skill,  patience,  and  faith- 
ful study  which  are  collected  in  the  first  and  second 
volumes,  published  in  1777  and  1798,  I  believe  my  own 
work  would  never  have  been  undertaken.*  Such  as  it 
is,  however,  I  may  still,  health  being  granted  me,  per- 
severe in  it ;  for  my  own  leaf  and  branch  studies  express 
conditions  of  shade  which  even  these  most  exquisite 
botanical  plates  ignore  ;  and  exemplify  uses  of  the  pen 
and  pencil  which  cannot  be  learned  from  the  inimitable 
fineness  of  line  engraving.  The  frontispiece  to  this  num- 
ber, for  instance,  (a  seeding  head  of  the  commonest  field- 
thistle  of  our  London  suburbs,)  copied  with  a  steel  pen  on 
smooth  grey  paper,  and  the  drawing  softly  touched  with 

I  hope  to  take  it  up  for  conclusion,  in  the  sections  of  '  Our  Fathers 
have  told  us  '  devoted  to  the  history  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

*  See  in  the  first  volume,  the  plates  of  Sonchus  Arvensis  and  Tus- 
silago  Petasites ;  in  the  second,  Carduus  torncntosus  and  Picris 
Echioides. 


IV.    GIUL1ETTA.  101 

white  on  the  nearer  thorns,  may  well  surpass  the  effect  of 
the  plate. 

L;.).  In  the  following  number  of  '  Proserpina '  I  have 
been  tempted  to  follow,  with  more  minute  notice  than 
usual,  the  '  conditions  of  adversity '  which,  as  they  fret  the 
thistle  tribe  into  jagged  malice,  have  humbled  the  beauty 
of  the  great  domestic  group  of  the  Yestals  into  confused 
likenesses  of  the  Dragonweed  and  Nettle :  but  I  feel 
every  hour  more  and  more  the  necessity  of  separating 
the  treatment  of  subjects  in  'Proserpina'  from  the  mi- 
croscopic curiosities  of  recent  botanic  illustration,  nor 
shall  this  work  close,  if  my  strength  hold,  without  fulfil- 
ling in  some  sort,  the  effort  begun  long  ago  in  '  Modern 
Painters,'  to  interpret  the  grace  of  the  larger  blossoming 
trees,  and  the  mysteries  of  leafy  form  which  clothe  the 
Swiss  precipice  with  gentleness,  and  colour  with  softest 
azure  the  rich  horizons  of  England  and  Italy. 


CHAPTEK  V. 

BRUNELLA. 

1.  IT  ought  to  have  been  added  to  the  statements  of 
general  law  in  irregular  flowers,  in  Chapter  I.  of  this 
volume,  §  6,  that  if  the  petals,  while  brought  into  rela- 
tions of  inequality,  still  retain  their  perfect  petal  form, — 
and  whether  broad  or  narrow,  extended  or  reduced,  re- 
main clearly  leaves,  as  in  the  pansy,  pea,  or  azalea,  and 
assurrfe  no   grotesque   or   obscure    outline, — the   flower, 
though  injured,  is  not  to  be  thought  of  as  corrupted  or 
misled.     But  if  any  of  the  petals  lose  their  definite  char- 
acter  as  such,  and  become  swollen,  solidified,  stiffened, 
or  strained  into  any  other  form  or  function  than  that  of 
petals,  the  flower  is  to  be  looked  upon  as  affected  by 
some  kind  o.f  constant  evil  influence ;  and,  so  far  as  we 
conceive  of  any  spiritual  power  being  concerned  in  the 
protection  or  affliction  of  the  inferior  orders  of  creatures, 
it  will  be  felt  to  bear  the  aspect  of  possession  by,  or  pol- 
lution by,  a  more  or  less  degraded  Spirit.* 

2.  I  have  already  enough  spoken  of  the  special  mani- 

*  For  the  sense  in  which  this  word  is  used  throughout  my  writings, 
see  the  definition  of  it  in  the  52nd  paragraph  of  the  '  Queen  of  the 
Air/  comparing  with  respect  to  its  office  in  plants,  §§  59-60. 


V.    BRUXELLA.  103 

festation  of  this  character  in  the  orders  Contorta  and 
Satyrium.  vol.  i.,  p.  91,  and  the  reader  will  find  the 
parallel  aspects  of  the  Draconidae  dwelt  upon  at  length 
in  the  86th  and  87th  paragraphs  of  the  *  Queen  of  the 
Air,'  where  also  their  relation  to  the  labiate  group  is 
touched  upon.  But  I  am  far  more  embarrassed  by  the 
symbolism  of  that  group  which  I  called  '  Vestales,'  from 
their  especially  domestic  character  and  their  serviceable 
purity ;  but  which  may  be,  with  more  convenience  per- 
haps, simply  recognizable  as  4  Menthae.' 

3.  These  are,  to  our  northern  countries,  what  the  spice- 
bearing  trees  are  in  the  tropics ; — our  thyme,  lavender, 
mint,  marjoram,  and  their  like,  separating  themselves 
not  less  in  the  health  giving  or  strengthening  character 
of  their  scent  from  the  flowers  more  or  less  enervating  in 
perfume,  as  the  rose,  orange,  and  violet, — than  in  their 
humble  colours  and  forms  from  the  grace  and  splendour 
of  those  higher  tribes ;  thus  allowing  themselves  to  be 
summed  under  the  general  word  '  balm'  more  truly  than 
the  balsams  from  which  the  word  is  derived.  Giving 
the  most  pure  and  healing  powers  to  the  air  around 
them ;  with  a  comfort  of  warmth  also,  being  mostly  in 
dry  places,  and  forming  sweet  carpets  and  close  turf; 
but  only  to  be  rightly  enjoyed  in  the  open  air,  or  indoors 
when  dried  ;  not  tempting  any  one  to  luxury,  nor  ex- 
pressive of  any  kind  of  exultation.  Brides  do  not  deck 
themselves  with  thyme,  nor  do  we  wreathe  triumphal 
arches  with  mint. 


104  PKOSERPINA. 

4.  It  is  most  notable,  also,  farther,  that  none  of  these 
flowers  have  any  extreme  beauty  in  colour.     The  blue 
sage  is  the  only  one  of  vivid  hue  at  all ;  and  we  never 
think  of  it  as  for  a  moment  comparable  to  the  violet  or 
bluebell :  thyme  is  unnoticed  beside  heath,  and  many  of 
the  other  purple  varieties  of  the  group  are  almost  dark 
and  sad  coloured  among  the  flowers  of  summer;  while, 
so  far  from  gaining  beauty  on   closer  looking,  there  is 
scarcely  a  blossom  of  them  which  is  not   more  or  less 
grotesque,  even  to  ugliness,  in  outline ;  and  so  hooded  or 
lappeted  as  to  look  at  iirst  like  some  imperfect  form  of 
snapdragon :  for  the  most  part  spotted  also,  wrinkled  as 
if  by  old  age  or  decay,  cleft  or  torn,  as  if  by  violence, 
and  springing  out  of  calices  which,  in  their  clustering 
spines,  embody  the  general  roughness  of  the  plant. 

5.  I  take  at  once  for  example,  lest  the  reader  should 
think  me  unkind  or  intemperate  in  my  description,  a 
flower  very  dear  and  precious  to  me ;  and  at  this  lime 
my  chief  comfort  in  field  walks.     For,  now,  the  reign 
of  all  the  sweet  reginas  of  the  spring  is  over — the  reign 
of  the  silvia  and  anemone,  of  viola  and  veronica;  and  at 
last,  and  this  year  abdicated  under  tyrannous  storm,*  the 
reign,  of  the  rose.     And  the  last  foxglove-bells  are  nearly 
fallen  ;  and  over  all  my  fields  and  by  the  brooksides  are 
coming  up  the  burdock,  and  the  coarse  and  vainly  white 
aster,  and  the  black  knapweeds ;  and  there  is  only  one 

*  Written  in  1880. 


V.    BKUNELLA.  105 

flower  left  to  love  among  the  grass, — the   soft,  warm- 
scented  Erunelle. 

6.  Prunell,  or  Bruncll — Gerarde  calls  it,  and  Brunella, 
rightly  and  authoritatively,  Tournefort ;  Prunella,  care- 
lessly,  Linnaeus,  and  idly  following  him,  the  moderns, 
casting  out  all  the   meaning  and   help  of  its  name — of 
which  presently.     Selfe-heale,  Gerarde  and  Gray  call  it, 
in  English — meaning  that  who  has  this  plant  needs  no 
physician. 

7.  As  I  look  at  it,  close  beside  me,  it  seems  as  if  it 
would  reprove  me  for  what  I  have  just  said  of  the  pov- 
erty of  colour  in  its  tribe ;  for  the  most  glowing  of  vio- 
lets could  not  be  lovelier  than  each  fine  purple  gleam  of 
its  hooded  blossoms.     But  their  flush  is  broken  and  op- 
pressed by  the  dark  calices  out  of  which  they  spring,  and 
their  utmost  power  in  the  field  is  only  of  a  saddened 
amethystine   lustre,   subdued   with    furry   brown.     And 
what  is  worst  in  the  victory  of  the  darker  colour  is  the 
disorder  of  the  scattered  blossoms ; — of  all  flowers  I  know, 
this  is  the  strangest,  in  the  way  that  here  and  there,  only 
in  their  cluster,  its  bells  rise  or  remain,  and  it  always 
looks  as  if  half  of  them  had  been  shaken  off,  and  the  top 
of  the  cluster  broken  short  away  altogether. 

8.  We   must   never  lose  hold  of  the   principle   that 
every  flower  is  meant  to  be  seen  by  human  creatures 
with  human  eyes,  as  by  spiders  with  spider  eyes.     But 
as  the  painter  may  sometimes  play  the  spider,  and  weave 
a  mesh  to  entrap  the  heart,  so  the  beholder  may  play  the 


106  PROSERPINA. 

spider,  when  there  are  meshes  to  be  disentangled  that 
have  entrapped  his  mind.  I  take  my  lens,  therefore — to 
the  little  wonder  of  a  brown  wasps'  nest  with  blue-winged 
wasps  in  it, — and  perceive  therewith  the  following  par- 
ticulars. 

9.  First,  that  the  blue  of  the  petals  is  indeed  pure  and 
lovely,  and  a  little  crystalline  in  texture ;  but  that  the 
form  and  setting  of  them  is  grotesque  beyond  all  won- 
der; the  two  uppermost  joined  being  like  an  old  fash- 
ioned and  enormous  hood  or  bonnet,  and  the  lower  one 
projecting  far  out  in  the  shape  of  a  cup  or  cauldron, 
torn  deep  at  the  edges  into  a  kind  of  fringe. 

Looking  more  closely  still,  I  perceive  there  is  a  cluster 
of  stiff  white  hairs,  almost  bristles,  on  the  top  of  the 
hood ;  for  no  imaginable  purpose  of  use  or  decoration— 
any  more  than  a  hearth-brush  put  for  a  helmet-crest, — 
and  that,  as  we  put  the  flower  full  in  front,  the  lower 
petal  begins  to  look  like  some  threatening  viperine  or 
shark-like  jaw,  edged  with  ghastly  teeth, — and  yet  more, 
that  the  hollow  within  begins  to  suggest  a  resemblance 
to  an  open  throat  in  which  there  are  two  projections 
where  the  lower  petal  joins  the  lateral  ones,  almost  ex- 
actly like  swollen  glands. 

I  believe  it  was  this  resemblance,  inevitable  to  any 
careful  and  close  observer,  which  first  suggested  the  use 
of  the  plant  in  throat  diseases  to  physicians ;  guided,  as 
in  those  first  days  of  pharmacy,  chiefly  by  imagination. 
Then  the  German  name  for  one  of  the  most  fatal  of 


V.    BRUtfELLA.  107 

throat  affections,  Branne,  extended  itself  into  the   first 
name  of  the  plant,  Brunelle. 

10.  The  truth  of  all  popular  traditions  as  to  the  heal- 
ing power  of  herbs  will  he  tried  impartially  as  soon  as 
men  again  desire  to  lead  healthy  lives ;  but  I  shall  not  in 
•Proserpina'  retain  any  of  the  names  of  their  gathered 
and  dead  or  distilled  substance,  but  name  them  always 
from  the  characters  of  their  life.     I  retain,  however,  for 
this  plant  its  name  Brunella,   Fr.  Brunelle,  because  we 
may  ourselves  understand  it  as  a  derivation  from  Brune  ; 
and  I  bring  it  here  before  the  reader's  attention  as  giving 
him  a  perfectly  instructive  general  type  of  the  kind  of 
degradation  which  takes  place  in  the  forms  of  flowers 
under  more  or  less  malefic  influence,  causing  distortion 
and  disguise  of  their  floral  structure.     Thus  it  is  not  the 
normal  character  of  a  flower  petal  to  have  a  cluster  of 
bristles  growing  out  of  the  middle  of  it,  nor  to  be  jagged  at 
the  edge  into  the  likeness  of  a  fanged  fish's  jaw,  nor  to  be 
swollen  or  pouted  into  the  likeness  of  a  diseased  gland  in 
an  animal's  throat.     A  really  uncorrupted  flower  suggests 
none  but  delightful  images,  and  is  like  nothing  but  itself. 

11.  I  find  that  in  the  year  1719,  Tournefort  defined, 
with  exactitude  which  has  rendered  the  definition  author- 
itative  for  all  time,  the   tribe   to  which   this   Brownie 
flower  belongs,  constituting  them  his  fourth  class,  and 
describing  them  in  terms  even  more  depreciatingly  im- 
aginative than  any  I   have  ventured  to  use  myself.     I 
translate  the  passage  ^voL  i.,  p.  177) : — 


108  PROSERPINA. 

12.  "  The  name  of  Labiate  flower  is  given  to  a  single- 
petaled  flower  which,  beneath,  is  attenuated  into  a  tube, 
and  above  is  expanded  into  a  lip,  which  is  either  single 
or  double.     It  is  proper  to  a  labiate  flower, — first,  that 
it  has  a  one-leaved  calyx  (at  calycem  habeat  unifolium\ 
for  the  most  part  tubulated,  or  reminding  one  of  a  paper 
hood   (cucullum   papyraceum) ;    and,  secondly,  that  its 
pistil  ripens  into  a  fruit  consisting  of  four  seeds,  which 
ripen  in  the  calyx  itself,  as  if  in  their  own  seed  vessel, 
by  which  a  labiate  flower  is  distinguished  from  a  per- 
sonate one,  whose  pistil  becomes  a  capsule  far  divided 
from  the  calyx  (a  calyce  longe  divisam).     And  a  labiate 
flower  differs  from  rotate,  or  bell-shaped  flowers,  which 
have  four  seeds,  in  that  the  lips  of  a  labiate  flower  have 
a  gape  like  the  face  of  a  goblin,  or  ludicrous  mask,  emu- 
lous of  animal  form." 

13.  This  class  is  then  divided  into  four  sections. 

In  the  first,  the  upper  lip  is  helmeted,  or  hooked — 
"galeatum  est,  vel  falcatum," 

In  the  second,  the  upper  lip  is  excavated  like  a  spoon 
— "  cochlearis  in  star  est  excavatum." 

In  the  third  the  upper  lip  is  erect. 

And  in  the  fourth  there  is  no  upper  lip  at  all. 

The  reader  will,  I  hope,  forgive  me  for  at  once  reject- 
ing a  classification  of  lipped  plants  into  three  classes  that 
have  lips,  and  one  that  has  none,  and  in  which  the  lips 
of  those  that  have  got  any,  are  like  helmets  and  spoons. 

Linnaeus,  in  1758,  grouped  the  family  into  two  divi- 


V.    BRUNELLA.  109 

sions,  by  the  form  of  the  calyx,  (five-fold  or  two-fold), 
and  then  went  into  the  wildest  confusion  in  distinction 
of  species, — sometimes  by  the  form  of  corolla,  sometimes 
bv  that  of  calyx,  sometimes  by  that  of  the  filaments, 
sometimes  by  that  of  the  stigma,  and  sometimes  by  that 
of  the  seed.  As,  for  instance,  thyme  is  to  be  identified 
by  the  calyx  having  hairs  in  its  throat,  dead  nettle  by 
having  bristles  in  its  mouth,  lion's  tail  by  having  bones 
in  its  anthers  (antherae  punctis  osseis  adspersae),  and 
teucrium  by  having  its  upper  lip  cut  in  two  ! 

14.  St.  Hilaire,  in  1805,  divides  again  into  four  sec- 
tions, but  as  three  of  these  depend  on  form  of  corolla, 
and  the  fourth  on  abortion  of  stamens,  the  reader  may 
conclude  practically,  that  logical  division  of  the  family 
is  impossible,  and  that  all  he  can  do,  or  that  there  is  the 
smallest  occasion  for  his  doing,  is  first  to  understand  the 
typical  structure  thoroughly,  and  then  to  know  a  certain 
number  of  forms  accurately,  grouping  the  others  round 
them  at  convenient  distances ;  and,  finally,  to  attach  to 
their  known  forms  such  simple  names  as  may  be  utter- 
able  by  children,  and  memorable  by  old  people,  with 
more  ease  and  benefit  than,  the  '  Galeopsis  Eu-te-trahit,' 
'  Lamium  Galeobdalon,'  or  '  Scutellaria  Galericulata,'  and 
the  like,  of  modern  botany.  But  to  do  this  rightly,  I 
must  review  and  amplify  some  of  my  former  classifica- 
tion, which  it  will  be  advisable  to  do  in  a  separate 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MONACHA. 

1.  IT  is  not  a  little  vexing  to  me,  in  looking  over  the 
very  little  I  have   got   done   of   my   planned   Systema 
Proserpinse,  to  discover  a  grave  mistake  in  the  specifica- 
tions of  Veronica.     It  is  Veronica  chamsedrys,  not  offi- 
cinalis,  which   is    our    proper    English    Speedwell,  and 
Welsh   Fluellen ;    and  all  the  eighth  paragraph,  p.  74, 
properly  applies  to  that.     Veronica  officinalis  is  an  ex- 
tremely small  flower  rising  on  vertical  stems  out  of  re- 
cumbent  leaves;    and  the  drawing  of  it   in   the  Flora 
Danica,  which  I  mistook  for  a  stunted  northern  state,  is 
quite  true  of  the  English  species,*  except  that  it  does 
not  express  the   recumbent   action  of  the  leaves.     The 
proper  representation   of  ground-leafage  has  never  yet 
been  attempted  in  any  botanical  work  whatever,  and  as, 
in  recumbent  plants,  their  grouping  and  action  can  only 
be  seen  from  above,  the  plates  of  them  should  always 
have  a  dark  and  rugged  background,  not  only  to  indicate 
the  position  of  the  eye,  but  to  relieve  the  forms  of  the 

*  The  plate  of  Chamaedrys,  D.  448,  is  also  quite  right,  and  not 
1  too  tall  and  weedlike,'  as  I  have  called  it  at  p.  72. 


UK  I  •  'M 


VI.    HONACHAV.        4JJFQ  HI 


leaves  as  they  were  intended  to  be  shown.     I  will  try  to 
give  some  examples  in  the  course  of  this  year. 

2.  I   find   also,    sorrowfully,    that  the  references  are 
wrong  in  three,  if  not  more,  places  in  that  chapter.     S. 
9T1  and   972  should   be  transposed  in  p.  72.     S.  294  in 
p.   74  should  be  981.     D.  407  should  be  inserted  after 
Peregrina,  in  p.  76  ;  and  203,  in  fourth  line  from  bottom 
of  p.  78,  should  be  903.     I  wish  it  were  likely  that  these 
errors  had  been  corrected  by  my  readers, — the  rarity  of 
the  Flora  Danica  making  at  present  my  references  virtu- 
ally useless  :  but  I  hope  in  time  that  our  public  institutes 
will  possess  themselves  of  copies  :  still  more  do  I  hope 
that  some  book  of  the  kind  will  be  undertaken  by  Eng- 
lish artists  and  engravers,  which  shall  be  worthy  of  our 
own  country. 

3.  Farther,  I   get  into  confusion   by  not   always   re- 
membering  my  own   nomenclature,  and   have  allowed 
i  Gentianoides '  to  remain,  for  "No.  16,  though  I  banish 
Gentian.     It  will  be  far  better  to  call  this  eastern  moun- 
tain species  '  Olympica ' :  according  to  Sibthorpe's  local- 
ization, "  in    summa  parte,  nive  soluta,  montis   Olympi 
Bithyni,''  and  the   rather  that  Curtis's  plate  above  re- 
ferred to  shows  it  in  luxuriance  to  be  liker  an  asphodel 
than  a  gentian. 

•4.  I  have  also  perhaps  done  wrong  in  considering 
Veronica  polita  and  agrestis  as  only  varieties,  in  No.  3. 
Xo  author  tells  me  why  the  first  is  called  polite,  but  its 
blue  seems  more  intense  than  that  of  agrestis;  and  as  it 


112  PROSERPINA. 

is  above  described  with  attention,  vol.  i.,  p.  75,  as  an  ex- 
ample of  precision  in  flower- form,  we  may  as  well  re- 
tain it  in  our  list  here.  It  will  be  therefore  our  twent}r- 
iirst  variety, — it  is  London's  fifty-ninth  and  last.  He 
translates  (  polita '  simply  'polished,'  which  is  nonsense. 
I  can  think  of  nothing  to  call  it  but  'dainty,'  and  will 
leave  it  at  present  unchristened. 

5.  Lastly.  I  can't  think  why  I  omitted  Y.  Hum  if  lisa, 
S.  979,  which  seems  to  be  quite  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful of  the  family — a  mountain  flower  also,  and  one  which 
I  ought  to  find  here;  but  hitherto  I  know  only  among 
the  mantlings  of  the  ground,  Y.  thyrnifolia  and  offici- 
nalis.  All  these,  however,  agree  in  the  extreme  pretti- 
ness  and  grace  of  their  crowded  leafage, — the  officinalis, 
of  which  the  leaves  are  shown  much  too  coarsely  serrated 
in  S.  984,  forming  carpets  of  finished  embroidery  which 
I  have  never  yet  rightly  examined,  because  I  mistook 
them  for  St.  John's  wort.  They  are  of  a  beautiful 
pointed  oval  form,  serrated  so  finely  that  they  seem 
smooth  in  distant  effect,  and  covered  with  equally  invisi- 
ble hairs,  which  seem  to  collect  towards  the  edge  in  the 
variety  Hirsuta,  S.  985. 

For  the  present,  I  should  like  the  reader  to  group  the 
three  flowers,  S.  979,  984,  985,  under  the  general  name 
of  Humifusa,  and  to  distinguish  them  by  a  third  epithet, 
which  I  allow  myself  when  in  difficulties,  thus: 

Y.  Humifusa,  caerulea,  the  beautiful  blue  one,  which 
resembles  Spicata. 


VI.    MONACHA.  113 

V.  Humifusa,  officinalis,  and, 

~Y.  Humifusa,  liirsuta:  the  last  seems  to  me  extremely 
interesting,  and  I  hope  to  find  it  and  study  it 
carefully. 

I>y  this  arrangement  we  shall  have  only  twenty-one 
species  to  remember:  the  one  which  chiefly  decorates 
the  ground  again  dividing  into  the  above  three. 

6.  These  matters  being  set  right,  I  pass  to  the  busi- 
ness in  hand,  which  is  to  define  as  far  as  possible  the 
subtle  relations  between  the  Veronicas  and  Draconidse, 
and  again  between  these  and  the  tribe  at  present  called 
labiate.     In  my  classification  above,  vol.  i.,  p.  200,  the 
Draconidse   include  the   Nightshades;    but  this  was  an 
oversight.      Atropa   belongs   properly  to   the  following 
class,  Moiridse;    and  my  Draconids  are  intended  to  in- 
clude only  the  two  great  families  of  Personate  and  Rin- 
gent  flowers,  which  in  some  degree  resemble  the  head  of 
an  animal:    the  representative  one  being  what  we  call 
£  snapdragon,'  but  the  French,  careless  of  its  snapping 
power,  calf's  muzzle — "Muflier,  muflande,  or  muffle  de 
Yeau." — Rousseau,  'Lettres,'  p.  19. 

7.  As  I  examine  his  careful  and  sensible  plates  of  it, 
I  chance  also  on  a  bit  of  his  text,  which,  extremely  wise 
and  generally  useful,  I  translate  forthwith : — 

"  I  understand,  my  dear,  that  one  is  vexed  to  take  so 
much  trouble  without  learning  the  names  of  the  plants 
one  examines ;  but  I  confess  to  you  in  good  faith  that 
it  never  entered  into  my  plan  to  spare  you  this  little 


114  PROSERPINA. 

chagrin.  One  pretends  that  Botany  is  nothing  but  a 
science  of  words,  which  only  exercises  the  memory,  and 
only  teaches  how  to  give  plants  names.  For  me,  I  know 
no  rational  study  which  is  only  a  science  of  words:  and 
to  which  of  the  two,  I  pray  you,  shall  I  grant  the  name 
of  botanist, — to  him  who  knows  how  to  spit  out  a  name 
or  a  phrase  at  the  sight  of  a  plant,  without  knowing  any- 
thing of  its  structure,  or  to  him  who,  knowing  that  struc- 
ture very  well,  is  ignorant  nevertheless  of  the  very  arbi- 
trary name  that  one  gives  to  the  plant  in  such  and  such  a 
country  ?  If  we  only  gave  to  your  children  an  amusing 
occupation,  we  should  miss  the  best  half  of  our  purpose, 
which  is,  in  amusing  them,  to  exercise  their  intelligence 
and  accustom  them  to  attention.  Before  teaching  them 
to  name  what  they  see,  let  us  begin  by  teaching  them  to 
see  it.  That  science,  forgotten  in  all  educations,  ought 
to  form  the  most  important  part  of  theirs.  I  can  never 
repeat  it  often  enough — teach  them  never  to  be  satisfied 
with  words,  (kse  payer  de  mots')  and  to  hold  themselves 
as  knowing  nothing  of  what  has  reached  no  farther  than 
their  memories." 

8.  E-ousseau  chooses,  to  represent  his  'Personees,'  La 
Mufflaude,  la  Linaire,  1'Euphraise,  la  Pediculaire,  la 
Crete-de-coq,  1'Orobanche,  la  Cimbalaire,  la  Yelvote,  la 
Digitale,  giving  plates  of  snapdragon,  foxglove,  and 
Madonna-herb,  (the  Cimbalaire),  and  therefore  including 
my  entire  class  of  Draconidae,  whether  open  or  close 
throated.  But  I  propose  myself  to  separate  from  them 


VI.    MONACHA.  115 

the  flower  which,  for  the  present,  I  have  called  Monacha, 
but  may  perhaps  find  hereafter  a  better  name ;  this  one, 
which  is  the  best  Latin  I  can  find  for  a  nun  of  the  des- 
ert, being  given  to  it  because  all  the  resemblance  either 
to  calf  or  dragon  has  ceased  in  its  rosy  petals,  and  they 
resemble — the  lower  ones  those  of  the  mountain  thyme, 
and  the  upper  one  a  softly  crimson  cowl  or  hood. 

9.  This  beautiful  mountain  flower,  at  present,  by  the 
good  grace  of  botanists,  known  as  Pedicularis,  from  a 
disease  which  it  is  supposed  to  give  to  sheep,  is  distin- 
guished from   all   other   Draconidae  by   its   beautifully 
divided  leaves  :    while   the  flower  itself,  like,   as  afore- 
said, thyme  in  the  three  lower  petals,  rises  in  the  upper 
one   quite  upright,  and  terminates   in    the   narrow   and 
peculiar  hood  from  which  I  have  named  it  ;  Monacha.' 

10.  Two  deeper  crimson  spots  with  white  centres  ani- 
mate the  colour  of  the  lower  petals  in  our  mountain  kind 
— mountain    or   morass  ; — it  is  vilely  drawn  in    S.  997 
under  the  name  of  Sylvatica,  translated  '  Procumbent ' ! 
As  it  is  neither  a  wood  flower  nor  a  procumbent  one,* 
and  as  its  rosy  colour  is  rare  among  morass  flowers,  I 
shall  call  it  simply  Monacha  Rosea. 

I  have  not  the  smallest  notion  of  the  meaning  of  the 

*"  Stems  numerous  from  the  crown  of  the  root-stock,  dc-cum 
bent." — S.  The  effect  of  the  flower  upon  the  ground  is  always  of 
an  extremely  upright  and  separate  plant,  never  appearing  in  clusters, 
or  in  any  relation  to  a  central  root.  My  epithet  'rosea'  does  not 
deny  its  botanical  de-  or  pro-cumbency. 


116  PROSERPINA. 

following  sentence  in  S.  : — "  Upper  lip  of  corolla  not 
rostrate,  with  the  margin  on  each  side  furnished  with  a 
triangular  tooth  immediately  below  the  apex,  but  with- 
out any  tooth  below  the  middle."  Why,  or  when,  a  lip 
is  rostrate,  or  has  any  ''  tooth  below  the  middle,'  I  do  not 
know;  but  the  upper  petal  of  the  corolla  is  here  a  very 
close  gathered  hood,  with  the  style  emergent  downwards, 
and  the  stamens  all  hidden  and  close  set  within. 

In  this  action  of  the  upper  petal,  and  curve  of  the 
style,  the  flower  resembles  the  Labiates,*  and  is  the 
proper  link  between  them  and  the  Draconidse.  The 
capsule  is  said  by  S.  to  be  oval-ovoid.  As  eggs  always 
are  oval,  I  don't  feel  farther  informed  by  the  epithet. 
The  capsule  and  seed  both  are  of  entirely  indescribable 
shapes,  with  any  number  of  sides — very  foxglove-like, 
and  inordinately  large.  The  seeds  of  the  entire  family 
are  i  ovoid-subtrigonous.' — S. 

11.  I  find  only  two  species  given  as  British  by  S., 
namely,  Sylvatica  and  Palustris  ;  but  I  take  first  for  the 
Regina,  the  beautiful  Arctic  species  D.  1105,  Flora 
Suecica,  555.  Hose- colon  red  in  the  stem,  pale  pink  in 
the  flowers  (corollse  pallide  incarnatse),  the  calices  furry 
against  the  cold,  whence  the  present  ngly  name,  Hirsuta. 
Only  on  the  highest  crests  of  the  Lapland  Alps. 

(2)  Rosea,  D.  225,  there  called  Sylvatica,  as  by  S., 
presumably  because  "  in  pascuis  subhumidis  non  rarse." 

*  Compare  especially  Galeopsis  Angustifolia,  D.  3031. 


VI.    MONACHA.  117 

Beautifully  drawn,  but,  as  I  have  described  it,  vigorously 
erect,  and  with  no  decora bency  whatever  in  any  part  of 
it.  Root  branched,  and  enormous  in  proportion  to  plant, 
and  I  fancy  therefore  must  be  good  for  something  if  one 
knew  it.  But  Gerarde,  who  calls  the  plant  Red  Rattle, 
(it  having  indeed  much  in  common  with  the  Yellow 
Rattle),  says, i;  It  groweth  in  moist  and  moorish  meadows  ; 
the  herbe  is  not  only  unprofitable,  but  likewise  hurtful, 
and  an  infirmity  of  the  meadows." 

(3)  Palustris,  D.  2055,  S.  996— scarcely  any  likeness 
between  the  plates.  "  Everywhere  in  the  meadows," 
according  to  D.  I  leave  the  English  name,  Marsh 
Monacha,  much  doubting  its  being  more  marshy  than 
others. 

12.  I  take  next  (4  and  5)  two  northern  species,  Lap- 
ponica,  D.  2,  and  Gronlandica,  D.  1166 ;  the  first  yellow, 
the  second    red,  both    beautiful.     The   Lap  one  has  its 
divided  leaves  almost  united  into  one  lovely  spear-shaped 
single  leaf.     The  Greenland  one  has  its  red  hood  much 
prolonged  in  front. 

(6)  Ramosa,  also  a  Greenland  species;  yellow,  very 
delicate  and  beautiful.  Three  stems  from  one  root,  but 
may  be  more  or  fewer,  I  suppose. 

13.  (7)    Norvegica,    a    beautifully    clustered    golden 
flower,  with  thick  stem,  D.  30,  the    only   locality  given 
being  the  Dovrefeldt,      "Alpina"  and  "Flammea"  are 
the  synonyms,  but  I  do  not  know  it  on  the  Alps,  and  it 
is  no  more  flame-coloured  than  a  cowslip. 


118  PROSERPINA. 

Both  the  Lapland  and  Norwegian  flowers  are  drawn 
with  their  stems  wavy,  though  upright — a  rare  and 
pretty  habit  of  growth. 

14.  (8)  Suecica,  D.    26,  named  awkwardly  Sceptrum 
Carol inum,  in  honour  of  Charles  XII.     It  is  the  largest 
of  all  the  species  drawn  in  D.,  and  contrasts  strikingly 
with  (4)  and   (5)  in  the   strict  uprightness  of   its  stem. 
The   corolla  is   closed    at  the  extremity,  which  is  red  ; 
the  body  of  the  flower  pale  yellow.     Grows  in  marshy 
and   shady  woods,    near   Upsal.     Linn.,    Flora   Suecica, 
553. 

The  many-lobed  but  united  leaves,  at  the  root  five  or 
six  inches  long,  are  irregularly  beautiful. 

15.  These  eight  species  are  all  I  can  specify,  having 
no  pictures  of  the  others  named   by  London, — eleven, 
making  nineteen  altogether,  and  I  wish  I  could  find  a 
twentieth  and  draw  them  all,  but  the  reader  may  be  well 
satisfied  if  he  clearly  know  these  eight.     The  group  they 
form  is  an    entirely    distinct   one,   exactly  intermediate 
between  the  Vestals  and  Draconids,  and  cannot  be  rightly 
attached  to  either ;  for  it  is  Draconid  in  structure  and 
affinity — Vestal  in  form — and  I  don't  see  how  to  get  the 
connection  of  the  three  families  rightly  expressed  with- 
out taking  the  Draconidse  out  of  the  groups  belonging 
to  the  dark  Kora,  and  placing  them  next  the   Vestals, 
with    the   Monachae   between ;   for   indeed    Linaria  and 
several  other  Draconid  forms  are  entirely  innocent  and 
beautiful,  and  even  the  Foxglove  never  does  any  real 


VI.    MOXACHA.  119 

mischief  like  hemlock,  while  decoratively  it  is  one  of  the 
most  precious  of  mountain  flowers.  I  find  myself  also 
embarrassed  by  my  name  of  Vestals,  because  of  the 
masculine  groups  of  Basil  and  Thymus,  and  I  think  it 
will  be  better  to  call  them  simply  Menthse,  and  to  place 
them  with  the  other  cottage-garden  plants  not  yet 
classed,  taking  the  easily  remembered  names  Mentha, 
Monacha,  Draconida.  This  will  leave  me  a  blank 
seventh  place  among  my  twelve  orders  at  p.  194,  vol.  i., 
which  I  think  I  shall  fill  by  taking  cyclamen  and  ana- 
gillis  out  of  the  Primulaceae,  and  making  a  separate 
group  of  them.  These  retouchings  and  changes  are  in- 
evitable in  a  work  confessedly  tentative  and  suggestive 
only  ;  but  in  whatever  state  of  imperfection  I  may  be 
forced  to  leave  ;  Proserpina,'  it  will  assuredly  be  found, 
up  to  the  point  reached,  a  better  foundation  for  the 
knowledge  of  flowers  in  the  minds  of  young  people  than 
any  hitherto  adopted  system  of  nomenclature. 

16.  Taking  then  this  re-arranged  group,  Mentha, 
Monacha,  and  Draconida,  as  a  sufficiently  natural  and 
convenient  one,  I  will  briefly  give  the  essentially  botani- 
cal relations  of  the  three  families. 

Mentha  and  Monacha  agree  in  being  essentially  hooded 
flowers,  the  upper  petal  more  or  less  taking  the  form  of 
a  cup,  helmet  or  hood,  which  conceals  the  tops  of  the 
stamens.  Of  the  three  lower  petals,  the  lowest  is  almost 
invariably  the  longest ;  it  sometimes  is  itself  divided 
again  into  two,  but  may  be  best  thought  of  as  single,  and 


120  PROSERPINA. 

with  the  two  lateral  ones,  distinguished  in  the  Mentlise 
as  the  apron  and  the  side  pockets. 

Plate  XII.  represents  the  most  characteristic  types  of 
the  blossoms  of  Menthse,  in  the  profile  and  front  views, 
all  a  little  magnified.  The  upper  two  are  white  basil, 
purple  spotted — growing  here  at  Brantwood  always  with 
two  terminal  flowers.  The  two  middle  figures  are  the 
purple-spotted  dead  nettle,  Lamium  maculatum  ;  and 
the  two  lower,  thyme  :  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  draw 
these  as  I  wanted,  the  perspectives  of  the  petals  being 
too  difficult,  and  inexplicable  to  the  eye  even  in  the 
flowers  themselves  without  continually  putting  them  in 
changed  positions. 

17.  The  Menthse  are  in  their  structure  essentially 
quadrate  plants ;  their  stems  are  square,  their  leaves 
opposite,  their  stamens  either  four  or  two,  their  seeds 
two-carpeled.  But  their  calices  are  five-sepaled,  falling 
into  divisions  of  two  and  three  ;  and  the  flowers,  though 
essentially  four-petaled,  may  divide  either  the  upper  or 
lower  petal,  or  both,  into  two  lobes,  and  so  present  a  six- 
lobed  outline.  The  entire  plants,  but  chiefly  the  leaves, 
are  nearly  always  fragrant,  and  always  innocent.  None 
of  them  sting,  none  prick,  and  none  poison. 

IS.  The  Draconids,  easily  recognizable  by  their  as- 
pect, are  botanically  indefinable  with  any  clearness  or 
simplicity.  The  calyx  may  be  five-  or  four-sepaled  ;  the 
corolla,  five-  or  four-lobed ;  the  stamens  may  be  two, 
four,  four  with  a  rudimentary  fifth,  or  five  with  the  two 


4 


, 


\' 


XII. 

MENTH/E. 
Profile  and  Front  View  of  Blossoms  (enlarged). 


VI.    MO^ACHA.  121 

anterior  ones  longer  than  the  other  three !  The  capsule 
may  open  by  two,  three,  or  four  valves, — or  by  pores ; 
the  seeds,  generally  numerous,  are  sometimes  solitary, 
and  the  leaves  may  be  alternate,  opposite,  or  verticillate. 
19.  Thus  licentious  in  structure,  they  are  also  doubt- 
ful in  disposition.  None  that  I  know  of  are  fragrant, 
few  useful,  many  more  or  less  malignant,  and  some  para- 
sitic. The  following  piece  of  a  friend's  letter  almost 
makes  me  regret  my  rescue  of  them  from  the  dark  king- 
dom of  Kora : — 

"...  And  I  find  that  the  Monacha  Rosea  (Red  Rattle  is  its  name, 
besides  the  ugly  one)  is  a  perennial,  and  several  of  the  other  draconi- 
dae,  foxglove,  etc. ,  are  biennials,  born  this  year,  flowering  and  dying 
next  year,  and  the  size  of  roots  is  generally  proportioned  to  the  life 
of  plants  ;  except  when  artificial  cultivation  develops  the  root  special- 
ly, as  in  turnips,  etc.  Several  of  the  Draconidae  are  parasites,  and 
suck  the  roots  of 'other  plants,  and  have  only  just  enough  of  their  own 
to  catch  with.  The  Yellow  Rattle  is  one  ;  it  clings  to  the  roots  of 
the  grasses  and  clovers,  and  no  cultivation  will  make  it  thrive  without 
them.  My  authority  for  this  last  fact  is  Grant  Allen  ;  but  I  have  ob- 
served for  myself  that  the  Yellow  Rattle  has  very  small  white  suck- 
ing roots,  and  no  earth  sticking  to  them.  The  tooth  worts  and  broom 
rapes  are  Draconidae,  I  think,  and  wholly  parasites.  Can  it  be  that 
the  Red  Rattle  is  the  one  member  of  the  family  that  has  '  proper  pride, 
and  is  self  supporting '  ?  the  others  are  mendicant  orders.  We  had 
what  we  choose  to  call  the  Dorcas  flower  show  yesterday,  and  we  gave, 
as  usual,  prizes  for  wild  flower  bouquets.  I  tried  to  find  out  the  lo- 
cal names  of  several  flowers,  but  they  all  seemed  to  be  called  '  I 
don't  know,  ma'am.'  I  would  not  allow  this  name  to  suffice  for  the 
red  poppy,  and  I  said  '  This  red  flower  must  be  called  something — tell 
me  what  you  call  it  ?  '  A  few  of  the  audience  answered  '  Blind  Eyes.' 


122  P110SEKP1NA. 

Is  it  because  they  have  to  do  with  sleep  that  they  are  called  Blind 
Eyes— or  because  they  are  dazzling  ?" 

20.  I  think,  certainly,  from  the  dazzling,  which  some- 
times with  the  poppy,  scarlet  geranium,  and  nasturtium, 
is  more  distinctly  oppressive  to  the  eye  than  a  real  excess 
of  light. 

I  will  certainly  not  include  among  my  rescued  Dracon- 
idse,  the  parasitic  Lathrsea  and  Orobanche ;  and  cannot 
yet  make  certain  of  any  minor  classification  among  those 
which  I  retain, — but,  uniting  Bartsia  with  Euphrasia,  I 
shall  have,  in  the  main,  the  three  divisions  Digitalis,  Lin- 
aria,  Euphrasia,  and  probably  separate  the  moneyworts 
as  links  with  Yeronica,  and  Ehinanthus  as  links  with 
Lathraea. 

And  as  I  shall  certainly  be  unable  this  summer,  under 
the  pressure  of  resumed  work  at  Oxford,  to  spend  time 
in  any  new  botanical  investigations,  I  will  rather  try  to 
fulfil  the  promise  given  in  the  last  number,  to  collect 
what  little  I  have  been  able  hitherto  to  describe  or  ascer- 
tain, respecting  the  higher  modes  of  tree  structure. 


CHAPTEK  YIL 

SCIENCE    IN   HER   CELLS. 

[The  following  chapter  has  been  written  six  years.  It  was  delayed 
in  order  to  complete  the  promised  clearer  analysis  of  stem-struct- 
ure ;  which,  after  a  great  deal  of  chopping,  chipping,  and  peeling  of 
my  oaks  and  birches,  came  to  reverently  hopeless  pause.  What  is 
here  done  may  yet  have  some  use  in  pointing  out  to  younger  students 
how  they  may  simplify  their  language,  and  direct  their  thoughts,  so 
as  to  attain,  in  due  time,  to  reverent  hope.] 

1.  THE  most  generally  useful  book,  to  myself,  hither- 
to, in  such  little  time  as  I  have  for  reading  about  plants, 
has  been  Lindley's  '  Ladies'  Botany ' ;  but  the  most  rich 
and  true  I  have  yet  found  in  illustration,  the  f  Histoire 
des  Plantes,'  *  by  Louis  Figuier.  I  should  like  those  of 
my  readers  who  can  afford  it  to  buy  both  these  books ; 
the  first  named,  at  any  rate,  as  I  shall  always  refer  to  it 
for  structural  drawings,  and  on  points  of  doubtful  classifi- 
cation ;  while  the  second  contains  much  general  knowl- 
edge, expressed  with  some  really  human  intelligence  and 
feeling ;  besides  some  good  and  singularly  just  history 
of  botanical  discovery  and  the  men  who  guided  it.  The 
botanists,  indeed,  tell  me  proudly,  "  Figuier  is  no  author- 

*  Octavo  :  Paris,  Hachettc,  1865. 


124  PROSERPINA. 

ity."  But  who  wants  authority  !  Is  there  nothing  known 
yet  about  plants,  then,  which  can  be  taught  to  a  boy  or 
girl,  without  referring  them  to  an  i  authority '  ? 

1.  for  my  own  part,  care  only  to  gather  what  Figuier 
can  teach  concerning  things  visible,  to  any  boy  or  girl, 
who  live  within  reach  of  a  bramble  hedge,  or  a  hawthorn 
thicket,  and  can  find  authority  enough  for  what  they  are 
told,  in  the  sticks  of  them. 

2.  If  only  he  would,  or  could,  tell  us  clearly  that  much ; 
but  like  other  doctors,  though  with  better  meaning  than 
most,  he  has  learned   mainly  to  look  at  things  with    a 
microscope, — rarely  with  his  eyes.     And  I  am  sorry  to 
see,  on  re-reading  this  chapter  of  my  own,  which  is  little 
more  than  an  endeavour  to  analyze  and  arrange  the  state- 
ments contained  in  his  second,  that  I  have  done  it  more 
petulantly  and  unkindly  than  I  ought ;  but  I  can't  do  all 
the  work  over  again,  now, — more's  the  pity.     I  have  not 
looked  at  this  chapter  for  a  year,  and  shall  be  sixty  be- 
fore I  know  where  I  am  ; — (I  find  myself,  instead,  now, 
sixty-four !) 

3.  But  I  stand  at  once  partly  corrected  in  this  second 
chapter   of   Figuier's,  on   the  i  Tige,'  French   from  the 
Latin  'Tignum,'  which   '  authorities '  say  is  again  from 
the  Sanscrit,  and  means  'the  thing  hewn  with  an  axe'; 
anyhow  it  is  modern  French  for  what  we  are  to  call  the 
stem  (§  12,  p.  136). 

"  The  tige,"  then,  begins  M.  Louis,  "  is  the  axis  of  the 
ascending  system  of  a  vegetable,  and  it  is  garnished  at 


VIE.    SCIENCE    IX    IIEK    CELLS.  125 

intervals  with  vital  knots,  (eyes,)  from  winch  spring 
kavrs  ;md  buds,  disposed  in  a  perfectly  regular  order. 
The  root  presents  nothing  of  the  kind.  This  character 
permits  us  always  to  distinguish,  in  the  vegetable  axis, 
what  belongs  really  to  the  stem,  and  what  to  the 
root." 

4.  Yes ;  and  that  is  partly  a  new  idea  to  me,  for  in 
this  power  of  assigning  their  order  for  the  leaves,  the 
stem  seems  to  take  a  royal  or  commandant  character,  and 
cannot  be  merely  defined  as  the  connexion  of  the  leaf 
with  the  roots. 

In  it  is  put  the  spirit  of  determination.  One  cannot 
fancy  the  little  leaf,  as  it  is  born,  determining  the  point 
it  will  be  born  at :  the  governing  stem  must  determine 
that  for  it.  Also  the  disorderliness  of  the  root  is  to  be 
noted  for  a  condition  of  its  degradation,  no  less  than  its 
love,  and  need,  of  Darkness. 

Xor  was  I  quite  right  (above,  §  15,  p.  139)  in  calling 
the  stem  itself  '  spiral ' :  it  is  itself  a  straight-growing 
rod,  but  one  which,  as  it  grows,  lays  the  buds  of  future 
leaves  round  it  in  a  spiral  order,  like  the  bas-relief  on 
Trajan's  column. 

I  go  on  with  Figuier:  the  next  passage  is  very  valua- 
ble. 

5.  "The   tige  is  the    part  of    plants  which,   directed 
into  the  air,  supports,  and  gives  growing  power  to,  the 
branches,  the   twigs,  the  leaves,   and  the  flowers.     The 
form,  strength,  and  direction  of  the  tige  depend  on  the 


126  PROSERPINA. 

part  that  each  plant  has  to  play  among  the  vast  vegetable 
population  of  our  globe.  Plants  which  need  for  their 
life  a  pure  and  often-renewed  air,  are  borne  by  a  straight 
tige,  robust  and  tall.  When  they  have  need  only  of  a 
moist  air,  more  condensed,  and  more  rarely  renewed, 
when  they  have  to  creep  on  the  ground  or  glide  in  thick- 
ets, the  tiges  are  long,  flexible,  and  dragging.  If  they 
are  to  float  in  the  air,  sustaining  themselves  on  more  ro- 
bust vegetables,  they  are  provided  with  flexible,  slender, 
and  supple  tiges." 

6.  Yes;  but  in  that  last  sentence  he  loses  lio"Jd*of  his 
main  idea,  and  to  me  the  important  one, — namely,  the 
connexion  of  the  form  of  stem  with  the  quality  of  the 
air  it  requires.  And  that  idea  itself  is  at  present  vague, 
though  most  valuable,  to  me.  A  strawberry  creeps,  with 
a  flexible  stem,  but  requires  certainly  no  less  pure  air 
than  a  wood-fungus,  which  stands  up  straight.  And  in 
our  own  hedges  and  woods,  are  the  wild  rose  and  honey- 
suckle signs  of  unwholesome  air  ? 

"  And  honeysuckle  loved  to  crawl 
Up  the  lone  crags  and  ruined  wall. 
I  deemed  such  nooks  the  sweetest  shade 
The  sun  in  all  his  round  surveyed." 

It  seems  to  me,  in  the  nooks  most  haunted  by  honeysuckle 
in  my  own  wood,  that  the  reason  for  its  twining  is  a  very 
feminine  one, — that  it  likes  to  twine ;  and  that  all  these 
whys  and  wherefores  resolve  themselves  at  last  into — 


VII.    SCIENCE   IX   HER   CELLS.  127 

what  a  modern  philosopher,  of  course,  cannot  understand 
— caprice.* 

7.  Farther  on,  Figuier,  quoting  St.  Hilaire,  tells  us, 
of  the  creepers  in   primitive  forests, — "  Some  of   them 
resemble  waving  ribands,  others  coil  themselves  and  de- 
scribe vast   spirals ;  they  droop  in  festoons,   they  wind 
hither  and  thither  among  the  trees,  they  fling  themselves 
from  one  to  another,  and  form  masses  of  leaves  and  flow- 
ers in  which  the  observer  is  often  at  a  loss  to  discover  on 
which  plant  each  several  blossom  grows." 

For  all  this,  the  real  reasons  will  be  known  only  when 
human  beings  become  reasonable.  For,  except  a  curious 
naturalist  or  wistful  missionary,  no  Christian  has  trodden 
the  labyrinths  of  delight  and  decay  among  these  garlands, 
but  men  who  had  no  other  thought  than  how  to  cheat 
their  savage  people  out  of  their  gold,  and  give  them  gin 
and  smallpox  in  exchange.  But,  so  soon  as  true  servants 
of  Heaven  shall  enter  these  Edens,  and  the  Spirit  of  God 
enter  with  them,  another  spirit  will  also  be  breathed  into 
the  physical  air ;  and  the  stinging  insect,  and  venomous 
snake,  and  poisonous  tree,  pass  away  before  the  power  of 
the  regenerate  human  soul. 

8.  At  length,   on  the  structure  of   the  tige,   Figuier 
begins  his  real  work,  thus: — 

••  A  glance  of  the  eye,  thrown  on  the  section  of  a  log 
of  wood  destined  for  warming,  permits  us  to  recognize 

*  See  in  the  ninth  chapter  what  I  have  been  ahle,  since  this  sentence 
was  written,  to  notice  on  the  matter  in  question. 


128  PROSERPINA. 

that  the  tige  of  the  trees  of  our  forests  presents  three 
essential  parts,  which  are,  in  going  from  within  to  with- 
out, the  pith,  the  wood,  and  the  bark.  The  pith,  (in 
French,  marrow,)  forms  a  sort  of  column  in  the  centre 
of  the  woody  axis.  In  very  thick  and  old  stems  its  di- 
ameter appears  very  little ;  and  it  has  even  for  a  long 
time  been  supposed  that  the  marrow  ends  by  disappear- 
ing altogether  from  the  stems  of  old  trees.  But  it  does 
nothing  of  the  sort  ;*  and  it  is  now  ascertained,  by  exact 
measures,  that  its  diameter  remains  sensibly  invariable^ 
from  the  moment  when  the  young  woody  axis  begins  to 
consolidate  itself,  to  the  epoch  of  its  most  complete  de- 
.  velopment." 

So  far,  so  good ;  but  what  does  he  mean  by  the  com- 
plete development  of  the  young  woody  axis?  When 
does  the  axis  become  <  wooden,'  and  how  far  up  the  tree 
does  he  call  it  an  axis?  If  the  stem  divides  into  three 
branches,  which  is  the  axis  ?  And  is  the  pith  in  the 
trunk  no  thicker  than  in  each  branch? 

9.  He  proceeds  to  tell  us,  "  The  marrow  is  formed  by 
a  reunion  of  cells." — Yes,  and  so  is  Newgate,  and  so  was 
the  Bastille.  But  what  does  it  matter  whether  the  mar- 
row is  made  of  a  reunion  of  cells,  or  cellars,  or  walls,  or 

*  I  envy  the  French  their  generalized  form  of  denial,  '  II  n'en  est 
rien.' 

f  '  Sensiblement  invariable  ; '  '  unchanged,  so  far  as  we  can  see,'  or 
to  general  sense ;  microscopic  and  minute  change  not  being  consid- 
ered. 


VII.    SCIENCE    IN    HER    CELLS. 


1:29 


floors,  or  ceilings  ?  I  want  to  know  what's  the  use  of  it? 
why  doesn't  it  grow  bigger  with  the  rest  of  the  tree? 
when  does  the  tree '  consolidate  itself  ?  when  is  it  finally 
consolidated  ?  and  how  can  there  be  always  marrow  in  it 
when  the  weary  frame  of  its  age  remains  a  mere  scarred 
tower  of  war  with  the  elements,  full  of  dust  and  bats? 
clle  will  tell  you  if  only  you  go  on  patiently,'  thinks 


FIG.  24. 

the  reader.  He  will  not!  Once  your  modern  botanist 
gets  into  cells,  he  stays  in  them.  Hear  how  he  goes  on  ! 
— "This  cell  is  a  sort  of  sack;  this  sack  is  completely 
closed  ;  sometimes  it  is  empty,  sometimes  it" — is  full? — 
no,  that  would  be  unscientific  simplicity:  sometimes  it 
"  conceals  a  matter  in  its  interior."  "  The  marrow  of 
young  trees,  such  as  it  is  represented  in  Figure  2-i  (Fi- 
guier.  Figs.  38,  39,  p.  42),  is  nothing  else" — (indeed  !) — 


130  PROSERPINA. 

"  than  an  aggregation  of  cells,  which,  first  of  spherical 
form,  have  become  polyhedric  by  their  increase  and  mu- 
tual compression." 

10.  Now  these  figures,  38  and  39,  which  profess  to 
represent  this  change,  show  us  sixteen  oval  cells,  such  as 
at  A,  (Fig.  24)  enlarged  into  thirteen  larger,  and  flattish, 
hexagons  ! — B,  placed  at  a  totally  different  angle. 

And  before  I  can  give  you  the  figure  revised  with  any 
available  accuracy,  I  must  know  why  or  how  the  cells  are 
enlarged,  and  in  what  direction. 

Do  their  walls  lengthen  laterally  when  they  are  empty, 
or  does  the  '  matiere  '  inside  stuff  them  more  out,  (itself 
increased  from  what  sources  ?)  when  they  are  full?  In 
either  case,  during  this  change  from  circle  to  hexagon,  is 

O  O  Z3          / 

the  marrow  getting  thicker  without  getting  longer  ?  If 
so,  the  change  in  the  angle  of  the  cells  is  intentional,  and 

?  O  O  * 

probably  is  so;  but  the  number  of  cells  should  have  been 
the  same  :  and  further,  the  term  '  hexagonal '  can  only  be 
applied  to  the  section  of  a  tubular  cell,  as  in  honeycomb, 
so  that  the  floor  and  ceiling  of  our  pith  cell  are  left  un- 
described. 

1J.  Having  got  thus  much  of  (partly  conjectural)  idea 
of  the  mechanical  structure  of  marrow,  here  follows  the 
solitary  vital,  or  mortal,  fact  in  the  whole  business,  given 
in  one  crushing  sentence  at  the  close : — 

"The  medullary  tissue"  (first  time  of  using  this  fine 
phrase  for  the  marrow, — why  can't  he  say  marrowy  tis- 
sue— '  tissue  moei  lease '  ?)  "  appears  very  early  struck  with 


VII.    SCIENCE   IN    HER   CELLS.  131 

atony,"  (;  atonic,'  want  of  tone.)  "  above  all,  in  its  cen- 
tral parts."  And  so  ends  all  he  has  to  say  for  the  pres- 
ent about  the  marrow!  and  it  never  appears  to  occur  to 
him  for  a  moment,  that  if  indeed  the  noblest  trees  live 
all  their  lives  in  a  state  of  healthy  and  robust  paralysis, 
it  is  a  distinction,  hitherto  unheard  of,  between  vegeta- 
bles and  animals  ! 

12.  Two  pages  farther  on,  however,  (p.  45.)  we  get 
more  about  the  marrow,  and  of  great  interest, — to  this 
effect,  for  I  must  abstract  and  complete  here,  instead  of 
translating. 

"  The  marrow  itself  is  surrounded,  as  the  centre  of  an 
electric  cable  is,  by  its  guarding  threads — that  is  to  say, 
by  a  number  of  cords  or  threads  coming  between  it  and 
the  wood,  and  differing  from  all  others  in  the  tree. 

"The  entire  protecting  cylinder  composed  of  them  has 
been  called  the  "etui,'  (or  needle-case.)  of  the  marrow. 
But  each  of  the  cords  which  together  form  this  etui,  is 
itself  composed  of  an  almost  iniinitely  delicate  thread 
twisted  into  a  screw,  like  the  common  spring  of  a  letter- 
weigher  or  a  Jack-in-the-box,  but  of  exquisite  fineness." 
Upon  this,  two  pages  and  an  elaborate  figure  are  given 
to  these  'trachees' — tracheas,  the  French  call  them, — 
and  we  are  never  told  the  measure  of  them,  either  in  di- 
ameter or  length,*  and  still  less,  the  use  of  them  ! 

*  Moreover,  the  confusion  between  vertical  and  horizontal  sections 
in  pp.  46,  47,  is  completed  by  the  misprint  of  vertical  for  horizontal 
in  the  third  line  of  p.  43,  and  of  horizontal  for  vertical  in  the  fifth 


132  PROSERPINA. 

I  collect,  however,  in  my  thoughts,  what  I  have 
learned  thus  far. 

13.  A  tree  stein,  it  seems,  is  a  growing  thing,  cracked 
outside,  because  its  skin  won't  stretch,  paralysed  inside, 
because  its  marrow  won't  grow,  but  which  continues  the 
process  of  its  life  somehow,  by  knitted  nerves  without 
any  nervous  energy  in  them,  protected  by  spiral  springs 
without  any  spring  in  them. 

Stay — I  am  going  too  fast.  That  coiling  is  perhaps 
prepared  for  some  kind  of  uncoiling;  and  I  will  try  if  I 
can't  learn  something  about  it  from  some  other  book — 

O 

noticing,  as  I  pause  to  think  where  to  look,  the  advan- 
tage of  our  English  tongue  in  its  pithy  Saxon  word, 
'  pith,'  separating  all  our  ideas  of  vegetable  structure 
clearly  from  animal ;  while  the  poor  Latin  and  French 
•must  use  the  entirely  inaccurate  words  'medulla'  and 
'moelle';  all,  however,  concurring  in  their  recognition 
of  a  vital  power  of  sofne  essential  kind  in  this  white  cord 
of  cells:  "Medulla,  sive  ilia  vitalis  anima  est,  ante  se 
tendit,  longitudinem  impellens."  (Pliny,  '  Of  the  Yine,' 
liber  X.,  cap.  xxi.)  'Yitalis  anima' — yes — that  I  ac- 
cept; but  'longitudinem  impellens,'  I  pause  at;  being 
not  at  all  clear,  yet,  myself,  about  any  impulsive  power 
in  the  pith.* 

line  from  bottom  of  p.  46;  while  Figure  45  is  to  me  totally  unintelli- 
gible, this  being,  as  far  as  can  be  made  out  by  the  lettering,  a  section 
of  a  tree  stem  which  has  its  marrow  on  the  outside  ! 

*  "  Try  a  bit  of  rhubarb"  (says  A,  who  sends  me  a  pretty  drawing 


VII.    SCIENCE    IX    HER    CELLS.  133 

11.  However,  1  take  tip  first,  and  with  best  hope,  Dr. 
Asa  Gray,  who  tells  me  (Art.  211)  that  pith  consists  of 
parenchyma,  '  which  is  at  first  gorged  with  sap,'  hut  that 
many  stems  expand  so  rapidly  that  their  pith  is  torn  into 
a  mere  lining  or  into  horizontal  plates;  and  that  as  the 
stem  grows  older,  the  pith  becomes  dry  and  light,  and  is 
i  then  of  no  farther  use  to  the  plant.'  But  of  what  use 
it  ever  was,  we  are  not  informed ;  and  the  Doctor  makes 
us  his  bow,  so  far  as  the  professed  article  on  pith  goes ; 
but,  farther  on,  I  find  in  his  account  of  4  Sap-wood,'  (Art. 
22i,)  that  in  the  germinating  plantlet,  the  sap  'ascends 
first  through  the  parenchyma,  especially  through  its  cen- 
tral portion  or  pith.'  Whereby  we  are  led  back  to  our 
old  question,  what  sap  is,  and  where  it  comes  from,  with 
the  now  superadded  question,  whether  the  young  pith  is 
a  mere  succulent  sponge,  or  an  active  power,  and  con- 
structive mechanism,  nourished  by  the  abundant  sap :  as 
.Columella  has  it, — 

"Natural!  enim  spiritu  oinne  alimentum  virentis  quasi 
quaedam  anima,  per  mediillain  trunci  veluti  per  sipho- 
nem,  trahitnr  in  summum."  * 

As  none  of  these  authors  make  any  mention  of  a  com- 
et rhubarb  pith);  but  as  rhubarb  does  not  grow  into  wood,  inappli- 
cable to  our  present  subject;  and  if  we  descend  to  annual  plants,  rush 
pith  is  the  thing  to  be  examined. 

*  I  am  too  lazy  now  to  translate,  and  shall  trust  to  the  chance  of 
some  remnant,  among  my  readers,  of  classical  study,  even  in  modern 
England. 


134  PROSERPINA. 

munication  between  tlie  cells  of  the  pith,  I  conclude 
that  the  sap  they  are  filled  with  is  taken  up  by  them,  and 
used  to  construct  their  own  thickening  tissue. 

15.  Next,  I  take  Balfour's  '  Structural  Botany,'  and  by 
his  index,  under  the  word   '  Pith,'   am   referred  to  his 
articles  8,  72,  and  75.     In  article   8,  neither  the  word 
pith,  nor  any  expression  alluding  to  it,  occurs. 

In  article  72,  the  stem  of  an  outlaid  tree  is  defined  as 
consisting  of  'pith,  fibre-vascular  and*  woody  tissue, 
medullary  rays,  bark,  and  epidermis.' 

A  more  detailed  statement  follows,  illustrated  by  a 
figure  surrounded  by  twenty-three  letters — namely,  two 
J  s,  three  c  s,  four  e  s,  three  f&,  one  Z,  four  m  s,  three  p  s, 
one  r,  and  two  vs. 

Eighteen  or  twenty  minute  sputters  of  dots  may,  with 
a  good  lens,  be  discerned  to  proceed  from  this  alphabet, 
and  to  stop-  at  various  points,  or  lose  themselves  in  the 
texture,  of  the  represented  wood.  And,  knowing  now 
something  of  the  matter  beforehand,  guessing  a  little 
more,  and  gleaning  the  rest  with  my  finest  glass,  I 
achieve  the  elucidation  of  the  figure,  to  the  following 
extent,  explicable  without  letters  at  all,  by  my  more  sim- 
ple drawing,  Figure  25. 

16.  (1)  The  inner  circle  full  of  little  cells,  diminishing 
in  size   towards  the  outside,  represents  the  pith,   '  very 
large  at  this  period  of  the  growth' — (the  first  year,  we 

*  '  Or  woody  tissue,'  suggests  A.     It  is  '  and  '  in  Balfour. 


VII.    SCIENCE   IN 


CELLS. 


135 


are  told  in  next  page,)  and  *  very  large' — he  means  in 
proportion  to  the  rest  of  the  branch.  How  large  he 
does  not  say,  in  his  text,  but  states,  in  his  note,  that  the 
figure  is  magnified  26  diameters.  I  have  drawn  mine  by 
the  more  convenient  multiplier  of  30,  and  given  the  real 


FIG.  25. 

size  at  B,  according  to  Balfour : — but  without  believing 
him  to  be  right.  I  never  saw  a  maple  stem  of  the  first 
year  so  small. 

(2)  The  black  band  with  white  dots  round  the  mar- 
row, represents  the  marrow-sheath. 

(3)  From    the     marrow-sheath     run    the   marrow-rays 


136  PROSERPIXA. 

'dividing  the  vascular  circle  into  numerous  compact 
segments.'  A*  ray 'cannot  divide  anything  into  a  seg- 
ment. Only  a  partition,  or  a  knife,  can  do  that.  But 
we  shall  find  presently  that  marrow -rays  ought  to  be 
called  marrow-plates,  and  are  really  mural,  forming  more 
or  less  continuous  partitions. 

(4)  The  compact  segments   'consist  of  woody  vessels 
and  of  porous  vessels.'     This  is  the  first  we  have  heard 
of  woody  vessels/     He   means  the   ''fibres  ligneux'  of 
Figuier ;  and  represents  them  in  each  compartment,  as 
at  C   (Fig.   25),  without   telling  us   why  he   draws  the 
woody  vessels  as  radiating.     They  appear  to  radiate,  in- 
deed, when  wood  is  sawn  across,  but  they  are  really  up- 
right. 

(5)  A  moist  layer  of  greenish  cellular  tissue  called  the 
cambium  layer — black  in  Figure  25 — and  he  draws  it  in 
flat  arches,  without  saying  why. 

(6)  "]        Three  layers  of  bark  (called  in  his  note  Endo- 

(7)  |    phlceum,  Mesophloeum,  and  Epiphloaum  !)  with 

(8)  j     '  laticiferous  vessels.'  * 

(9)  Epidermis.     The  three  layers  of  bark  being  sepa- 
rated  by   single  lines,  I   indicate   the   epidermis   by  a 
double   one,  with  a  rough  fringe  outside,  and  thus  we 
have  the  parts  of  the  section  clearly  visible  and  distinct 

*  Terms  not  used  now,  but  others  quite  as  bad  :  Cuticle,  Epidermis, 
Cortical  layer,  Periderm,  Cambium,  Phellodcrm — six  hard  words  for 
'BARK/  says  my  careful  annotator.  "Yes  ;  and  these  new  six  to  be 
changed  for  six  newer  ones  next  year,  no  doubt." 


VII.    SCIENCE    IN    HER   CELLS.  137 

for  discussion,  so  far  as  this  first  figure  goes, — without 
wanting  one  letter  of  all  his  three  and  twenty ! 

17.  But  on  the  next  page,  this  ingenious  author  gives 
us  a  new  figure,  which  professes  to  represent  the  same 
order  of  things  in  a  longitudinal  section  ;  and  in  retrac- 
ing that  order  sideways,  instead  of  looking  down,  he  not 
only  introduces  new  terras,  but  misses  one  of  his  old  lay- 
ers in  doing  so, — thus  : 

His  order,  in  explaining  Figure  9G,  contains,  as  above, 
nine  members  of  the  tree  stem. 

But  his  order,  in  explaining  Figure  97,  contains  only 
eight,  thus : 

(1)  The  pith.  , 

Medullary  sheath.  \ 

(3)  Medullary  ray  =  a  Radius. 

<4>  Vascular  zone,  with  woody  fibres  (not  now  ves- 
sels !)  The  fibres  are  composed  of  spiral,  annular,  pitted, 
and  other  vessels. 

(5)  Inner    bark   or   4  liber,'    with  layer   of    cambium 
cells. 

(6)  Second  layer  of  bark,  or  '  cellular  envelope,'  with 
laticiferous  vessels. 

(7)  Outer  or  tuberous  layer  of  bark. 
v    Epidermis. 

Doing  the  best  I  can  to  get  at  the  muddle-headed  gen- 
tleman's meaning,  it  appears,  by  the  lettering  of  his 
Figure  97,  my  25  above,  that  the  f  liber,'  number  5,  con- 
tains the  cambium  layer  in  the  middle  of  it.  The  part 


138 


PROSERPINA. 


of  the  liber  between  the  cambium  and  the  wood  is  not 

marked  in  Figure  96 ; — but  the  cambium  is  number  5, 

and  the  liber  outside  of  it  is  number  6, — the  Endophloeum 

of  his  note. 

Having  got  himself  into  this  piece  of  lovely  confusion, 

he  proceeds  to  give  a  figure  of  the  wood  in  the  second 
year,  which  I  think  he  has  bor- 
rowed, without  acknowledgment, 
from  Figuier,  omitting  a  piece 
of  Figuier's  woodcut  which  is 
unexplained  in  Figuier's  text.  I 
will  spare  my  readers  the  work 
I  have  had  to  do,  in  order  to  get 
the  statements  on  either  side 
clarified :  but  I  think  they  will 
find,  if  they  care  to  work  through 
the  wilderness  of  the  two  au- 
thors' wits,  that  this  which  fol- 
lows is  the  sum  of  what  they  have 
effectively  to  tell  us  ;  with  the 
collated  list  of  the  main  questions 

they  leave  unanswered — and,  worse,  unasked. 

18.  An    ordinary   tree   branch,  in  transverse  section, 

consists  essentially  of  three  parts  only, — the  Pith,  Wood, 

and  Bark. 

The  pith  is  in  full  animation  during  the  first  year — 

that  is  to  say,  during  the  actual  shooting  of  the  wood. 

We  are  left  to  infer  that  in  the  second  year,  the  pith  of 


FIG.  26. 


VII.    SCIENCE   IN   HER   CELLS.  139 

the  then  un progressive  shoot  becomes  collective  only, 
not  formative  ;  and  that  the  pith  of  the  new  shoot  vir- 
tually energizes  the  new  wood  in  its  deposition  beside 
the  old  one.  Thus,  let  a  J,  Figure  26,  be  a  shoot  of  the 
first  year,  and  b  c  of  the  second.  The  pith  remains  of  the 
same  thickness  in  both,  but  that  of  the  new  shoot  is,  I 
suppose,  chiefly  active  in  sending  down  the  new  wood  to 
thicken  the  old  one,  which  is  collected,  however,  and 
fastened  by  the  extending  pith-rays  below.  You  see>  I 
have  given  each  shoot  four  fibres  of  wood  for  its  own  ; 
then  the  four  fibres  of  the  upper  one  send  out  two 
to  thicken  the  lower :  the  pith-rays,  represented  by 
the  white  transverse  claws,  catch  and  gather  all  to- 
gether. Mind,  I  certify  nothing  of  this  to  you  ;  but  if 
this  do  not  happen, — let  the  botanists  tell  you  what 
does. 

19.  Secondly.  The  wood,  represented  by  these  four 
lines,  is  to  be  always  remembered  as  consisting  of  fibres 
and  vessels ;  therefore  it  is  called  ;  vascular,'  a  word 
which  you  may  as  well  remember  (though .  rarely  needed 
in  familiar  English),  with  its  roots,  vas,  a  vase,  and  vas- 
culuin,  a  little  vase  or  phial.  '  Yascule '  may  sometimes 
be  allowed  in  botanical  descriptions  where  *  cell '  is  not 
clear  enough  ;  thus,  at  present,  we  find  our  botanists 
calling  the  pith  i  cellular'  but  the  wood  '  vascular,'  with, 
I  think,  the  implied  meaning  that  a  '  vascule,'  little  or 
large,  is  a  long  thing,  and  has  some  liquid  in  it.  while  a 
'cell'  is  a  more  or  less  round  thing,  and  to  be  supposed 


140 


PROSERPINA. 


empty,  unless  described  as  full.  But  what  liquid  fills 
the  vascules  of  the  wood,  they  do  not  tell 
us.*  I  assume  that  they  absorb  water,  as 
long  as  the  tree  lives. 

20.  Wood,  whether  vascular  or  fibrous,  is 
however  formed,  in  outlaid  plants,  first  out- 
side of  the  pith,  and  then,  in  shoots  of  the 
second  year,  outside  of  the  wood  of  the  first, 
and  in  the  third  year,  outside  of  the  wood  of 
the  second ;  so  that  supposing  the  quantity  of 
wood  sent  down  from  the  growing  shoot 
distributed  on  a  flat  plane,  the  structure  in 
the  third  year  would  be  as  in  Figure  27. 
But  since  the  new  wood  is  distributed  all 
round  the  stem,  (in  successive  cords  or 
threads,  if  not  at  once),  the  increase  of  sub- 
stance after  a  year  or  two  would  be  untraceable,  unless  more 
shoots  than  one  were  formed  at  the  extremity  of  the 
branch.  Of  actual  bud  and  branch  structure,  I  gave  intro- 
ductory account  long  since  in  the  fifth  volume  of  *  Modern 
Painters.'  f  to  which  I  would  now  refer  the  reader ;  but 

*  "  At  first  the  vessels  are  pervious  and  full  of  fluid,  but  by  degrees 
thickening  layers  are  deposited,  which  contract  their  canal."— BAL- 
FOUR. 

f  I  cannot  better  this  earlier  statement,  which  in  beginning  '  Proser- 
pina,' I  intended  to  form  a  part  of  that  work  ;  but,  as  readers  already 
in  possession  of  it  in  the  original  form,  ought  not  to  be  burdened  with 
its  repetition,  I  shall  repnblish  those  chapters  as  a  supplement,  which. 
T  trust  may  be  soon  issued. 


FIG.  27. 


VII.    SCIENCE    IN    HER   CELLS.  141 

both  then,  and  to-day,  after  twenty  years'  further  time 
allowed  nie,  I  sun  unable  to  give  the  least  explanation  of 
the  mode  in  which  the  wood  is  really  added  to  the  in- 
terior stem.  I  cannot  find,  even,  whether  this  is  mainly 
done  in  springtime,  or  in  the  summer  and  autumn,  when 
the  young  suckers  form  on  the  wood  ;  but  my  impres- 
sion is  that  though  all  the  several  substances  are  added 
annually,  a  little  more  pith  going  to  the  edges  of  the  pith- 
plates,  and  a  little  more  bark  to  the  bark,  with  a  great 
deal  more  wood  to  the  wood, — there  is  a  different  or  at 
least  successive  period  for  each  deposit,  the  carrying  all 
these  elements  to  their  places  involving  a  fineness  of  basket 
work  or  web  work  in  the  vessels,  which  neither  microscope 
nor  dissecting  tool  can  disentangle.  The  result  on  the 
whole,  however,  is  practically  that  we  have,  outside  the 
wood,  always  a  mysterious  'cambium  layer,'  and  then 
some  distinctions  in  the  bark  itself,  of  which  we  must 
take  separate  notice. 

21.  Of  Cambium,  Dr.  Gray's  220th  article  gives  the 
following  account.  "  It  is  not  a  distinct  substance,  but 
a  layer  of  delicate  new  cells  full  of  sap.  The  inner  por- 
tion of  the  cambium  layer  is,  therefore,  nascent  wood, 
and  the  outer  nascent  bark.  As  the  cells  of  this  layer 
multiply,  the  greater  number  lengthen  vertically  into 
prosenchyma,  or  woody  tissue,  while  some  are  trans- 
formed into  ducts"  (wood  vessels  i)  "  and  others  remain- 
ing && pa/renchyma,  continue  the  medullary  rays,  or  com- 
mence new  ones."  Xothing  is  said  here  of  the  part  of 


142  PROSERPINA. 

the  cambium  which  becomes  bark :  but  at  page  128,  the 
thin  walled  cells  of  the  bark  are  said  to  be  those  of  ordi- 
nary '  parenchyma,'  and  in  the  next  page  a  very  import- 
ant passage  occurs,  which  must  have  a  paragraph  to 
itself.  I  close  the  present  one  with  one  more  protest 
against  the  entirely  absurd  terms  '  par-enchyma,'  for  com- 
mon cellular  tissue,  '  pros-enchyma,'  for  cellular  tissue 
with  longer  cells  ; — '  cambium '  for  an  early  state  of  both, 
and  '  diachyma  'for  a  peculiar  position  of  one  \  *  while  the 
chemistry  of  all  these  substances  is  wholly  neglected,  and 
we  have  no  idea  given  us  of  any  difference  in  pith,  wood, 
and  bark,  than  that  they  are  made  of  short  or  long — 
young  or  old — cells  ! 

22.  But  in  Dr.  Gray's  230th  article  comes  this  passage 
of  real  value.  (Italics  mine — all.)  "While  the  newer 
layers  of  the  wood  abound  in  crude  sap,  which  they  con- 
vey to  the  leaves,  those  of  the  inner  bark  abound  in 
elaborated  sap,  which  they  receive  from  the  leaves,  and 
convey  to  the  cambium  layer,  or  zone  of  growth.  The 
proper  juices  and  peculiar  products  of  plants  are  accord- 
ingly found  in  the  foliage  and  bark,  especially  the  latter. 
In  the  bark,  therefore,  either  of  the  stem  or  root,  medi- 
cinal and  other  principles  are  usually  to  be  sought,  rather 

*  "  '  Diachyma '  is  parenchyma  in  the  middle  of  a  leaf  !"  (Balfour, 
Art.  137.)  Henceforward,  if  I  ever  make  botanical  quotations,  I  shall 
always  call  parenchyma,  By-tis  ;  prosenchyma,  To-tis  ;  and  diachyma, 
Through-tis,  short  for  By -tissue,  To-tissue,  and  Through -tissue — then 
the  student  will  see  what  all  this  modern  wisdom  comes  to  ! 


VII.    SCIENCE   IN   HER   CELLS.  143 

than  in  the  wood.  Nevertheless,  as  the  wood  is  kept  in 
connection  with  the  bark  by  the  medullary  rays,  many 
products  which  probably  originate  in  the  former  are  de- 
posited in  the  wood." 

23.  Now,  at  last,  I  see  my  way  to  useful  summary  of 
the  whole,  which  I  had  better  give  in  a  separate  chapter : 
and  will  try  in  future  to  do  the  preliminary  work  of 
elaboration  of  the  sap  from  my  authorities,  above  shown, 
in  its  process,  to  the  reader,  without  making  so  much 
fuss  about  it.  But,  I  think  in  this  case,  it  was  desirable 
that  the  floods  of  pros-,  par-,  peri-,  dia-,  and  circumlocu- 
tion, through  which  one  has  to  wade  towards  any  emer- 
gent crag  of  fact  in  modern  scientific  books,  should  for 
once  be  seen  in  the  wasteful  tide  of  them;  that  so  I 
might  finally  pray  the  younger  students  who  feel,  or  re- 
member, their  disastrous  sway,  to  cure  themselves  for 
ever  of  the  fatal  habit  of  imagining  that  they  know  more 
of  anything  after  naming  it  unintelligibly,  and  thinking 
about  it  impudently,  than  they  did  by  loving  sight  of  its 
nameless  being,  and  in  wise  confession  of  its  boundless 
mystery. 

In  re-reading  the  text  of  this  number  I  find  a  few  er- 
rata, noted  below,  and  can  besides  secure  my  young  read- 
ers of  some  things  left  doubtful,  as,  for  instance,  in  their 
acceptance  of  the  word  '  Monacha,'  for  the  flower  described 
in  the  sixth  chapter.  I  have  used  it  now  habitually  too 
long  to  part  with  it  myself,  and  I  think  it  will  be  found 


144  PROSERPINA. 

serviceable  and  pleasurable  by  others.  Neither  shall  I 
now  change  the  position  of  the  Draconidee,  as  suggested 
at  p.  118,  but  keep  all  as  first  planned.  See  among  other 
reasons  for  doing  so  the  letter  quoted  in  p.  121. 

I  also  add  to  the  plate  originally  prepared  for  this  num- 
ber, one  showing  the  effect  of  Veronica  officinalis  in  deco- 
ration of  foreground,  merely  by  its  green  leaves ;  see  the 
paragraphs  1  and  5  of  Chapter  "VI.  I  have  not  repre- 
sented the  fine  serration  of  the  leaves,  as  they  are  quite 
invisible  from  standing  height :  the  book  should  be  laid 
on  the  floor  and  looked  down  on,  without  stooping,  to 
see  the  effect  intended.  And  so  I  gladly  close  this  long- 
lagging  number,  hoping  never  to  write  such  a  tiresome 
chapter  as  this  again,  or  to  make  so  long  a  jTause  between 
any  readable  one  and  its  sequence. 

p.  105, 1.  1,  for  '  love  '  read  '  be  loved.' 
p.  105,  1.  3,  put  a  semicolon,  instead  of  comma,  after  '  it.' 
p.  113,  1.  9  from  bottom,  put  'calf's  muzzle'  in  inverted  commas, 
p.  115,  '  never  appearing  in  clusters ' ;  I  meant,  in  close  masses.     It 
forms  exquisite  little  rosy  crowds,  on  ground  that  it  likes. 


XIII. 

VERONICA  OFFICINALIS. 
Leafage  in   Foreground   Effect. 


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